Clinton was already in trouble for her use of a private server for State Department business, and for deleting official emails – so one of her IT technicians reportedly went on social media asking for tips on how to delete more data. The IT techie’s post – which he since deleted as well – was saved in the archives by other Reddit users, and now the House Oversight Committee is considering it key evidence and has ordered Reddit to preserve the posts. They say it “fits the pattern of what we think was happening.”
On July 23, 2014, the State Department agreed to turn over Hillary Clinton’s emails to the Benghazi Committee.
The very next day, July 24, 2014, a user by the name of “stonetear” put up a request on the social media site, Reddit, asking for help in stripping out a VIP email address from a bunch of archived emails he was being forced to turn over, saying the email address is “VERY VIP” and “someone you’d recognize.” He wanted to replace it with a “placeholder address.”
It is believed that “stonetear” is Paul Combetta, an engineer with Platte River Networks based out of Denver, Colorado, which is a tech firm that managed Clinton’s email server.
Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Reddit is cooperating with their preservation order. He said the order “has the weight of the law… you can’t destroy things and hope things magically get erased.”
“We have to verify the authenticity but we are pursuing it with vigor,” Chaffetz said. “On the surface it may be accurate, but we’ve got to make sure [the Reddit posts] are preserved and we have to dive deeper into the authenticity.”
Other Reddit users made the connection and saved the posts.
“I’m very confident that the amount of circumstantial evidence certainly points in one direction,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the panel’s Government Operations subcommittee, told The Hill. “We’re just trying to make doubly sure that we can authenticate that in a real way, because if not it will be challenged on a number of fronts.”
The Hill reported that Reddit retains basic information about subscribers, such as IP logs, which help identify which computer was used to access the site, and it will maintain deleted records for 90 days if it receives an official preservation order.
Here are the posts from a panicked “stonetear”:
Poster Comment:
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If given impunity, this kid could ruin Hillary. He probably has been running from testifying fearing for his life.