VAR's Refusal To Testify in Clinton Email Hearing Raises Conspiracy Fears

The refusal to answer questions from House lawmakers concerning then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server by two employees of Platte River Networks is raising questions about what information they might be hiding, solution providers said.

"Pleading the Fifth either says they've broken the law or they're protecting somebody," David Felton, owner of Canaan Technology in Norwalk, Conn., told CRN. "It opens up speculation, and it opens up conspiracies."

Denver-based Platte River's top priority at this point should be getting the issue off its plate and protecting the livelihood of the rest of the business, Felton said. Having employees assert their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination will only ensure the issue continues to be a huge distraction, Felton said, jeopardizing other client relationships and leading to the continued loss of money.

[Related: The 10 Biggest Tech Mistakes Hillary Clinton Made With Her Private Email Server]

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"Why would you take the Fifth?" Sam Heard, owner of Data Integrity Services, Lakeland, Fla., told CRN. "You got caught up in something. Just stand up, face it, and tell the truth."

One of Platte River's employees – technician Paul Combetta – reportedly erased an archive of Clinton's email in March 2015 despite being aware of an order to preserve it by the House Benghazi Committee, according to notes released by the FBI earlier this month.

"If Platte [River] really didn't delete the data until they broke a subpoena [for the records on Clinton’s email server], they broke a law and put all their business in jeopardy for one client," said Felton, who installs and maintains private email systems at Canaan Technology. "It shocks me that they didn't think about themselves and the position that put them in."

Platte River began managing Clinton's email server in 2013 after she stepped down as Secretary of State.

The company declined to comment for this story, and Combetta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In December 2014, Clinton's former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, told a Platte River employee to delete an archive of emails on Platte River's server since Clinton no longer needed access to emails older than 60 days, according to the FBI documents. After the existence of an email server became public on March 2, 2015, Mills sent an email to Platte River referencing the Benghazi Committee's preservation order.

Combetta told the FBI that between March 25 and March 31, he had an "oh s---" moment when he realized he had never deleted the archive, according to the FBI report, and then did so belatedly using a software program known as BleachBit, which later complicated efforts to recover the data.

FBI investigators found a Platte River work ticket that referenced a conference call on March 31, 2015, between the company, Mills and Clinton attorney David Kendall. Combetta was advised not to comment on the conference call because it was protected by attorney-client privilege, according to the FBI summary.

Combetta was granted limited immunity by the Justice Department for his cooperation in the FBI probe, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings, (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee.

Clinton and her aides told the FBI they weren't aware that Combetta had deleted emails in March 2015.

Felton said he's aware of every single thing Canaan Technology does for high-level clients, and said there's no way Combetta acted so carelessly without anybody knowing, especially because Platte River has just 30 employees and roughly $6 million in annual sales.

"Platte River is too small of a company for a person in a key role – the owner – to not be personally involved in all aspects of dealing with a client that high-profile," Felton said. "The stakes are too high; the client is too important."

The key people at Platte River must know what their technicians are doing on a day-to-day basis, said Felton, who wonders if the company will collapse under the weight of all this negative attention.

"They're either completely incompetent or playing stupid, and they can't be incompetent or else they wouldn't had gotten this high profile of client," Felton said.

Data Integrity Services' Heard said the owner or president of Platte River needs to stand up and honestly explain exactly what happened during the time the company was managing Clinton's email sever.

"Your ethics, your integrity, need to be above board," Heard said. "To me, you need to be honest, even to your own detriment."

Using BleachBit to remove data is a billable service and time-consuming process, Felton said, unlike physically destroying a hard drive, which Canaan Technology is willing to do for clients at no cost. BleachBit makes it virtually impossible to recover any data using forensic methods, which Heard said seems like overkill when dealing with a normal email server.

"It's like someone is really trying to erase the tracks," Heard said. "I would question why you want to go that deep."

Data Integrity Services is typically not instructed to wipe any forensic evidence with software like BleachBit, Heard said, and the company therefore normally sticks to the quick and dirty method of physically destroying the server.

"To me, take a sledgehammer and wreck it," Heard said.

Felton was more understanding of Platte River's decision to not immediately delete the Clinton email archive after receiving the request in December 2014. Canaan Technology's standard agreement with clients indicates that the company will hold the data for at least 30 days before destroying the storage drive and irreversibly deleting the data in case the customer gets any buyer's remorse, Felton said.

"I could almost envision a scenario like that happening in our office," said Felton, noting that Canaan Technology will remove data right away if a client indicates that it's a high priority.

For customers with compliance requirements -- such as the financial services industry -- Canaan Technology will ask clients to affirmatively acknowledge that any data being removed is in accordance with the laws for their business, though Felton said Canaan Technology operates on a ’need-to-know’ basis when it comes to hardware with sensitive data on it.

"Our clients want to protect us as much as we want to be protected," Felton said.

Data Integrity Services counts many municipalities among its clientele, but Heard said he wouldn't delete emails for municipal governments given the regulations in place governing how long emails must be retained. Instead, Heard said he'd give the municipality the key to delete the emails on its own.

"Ultimately, you're the ones pressing the delete key, not me," Heard said. "I'm not going to get caught in the middle of any regulations or laws."

Many requests for wiping data come from Data Integrity Services' health-care clients since HIPAA regulations prohibit leaving data on a hard drive that's being disposed of. In that scenario, Heard said he would wipe the data for the clients right away once he has received something in writing indicating that Data Integrity Services has authorization to do so.

"We don't just do things because we think it's the right thing to do," Heard said.

Ultimately, Felton is interested to see if Platte River will be held responsible in some way, as well as what the federal government believes the company should have done differently. Specifically, Felton said he's interested in what the federal government sees his responsibilities as being after a subpoena has been issued for client data that's in his possession.

"Can a small company like that [Platte River] survive this type of distraction?" Felton wondered. "How long can the ship go, under the captain, before it hits land?"