Hillary Clinton may have to testify under oath in the FBI investigation into her use of a private email server to conduct government business while secretary of state.
A federal judge has granted a request from a conservative activist group that top aides who served with her in the State Department be required to respond to questions under oath. A sworn statement from Mrs Clinton may become necessary as the investigation continues into whether her improper use of technology breached security laws, he said.
The ruling came as Marcel Lehel Lazar, a Romanian computer hacker known as Guccifer, claimed that he was able to repeatedly access her emails in 2013. The server held nearly 2,200 emails containing information now deemed classified.
“For me, [hacking her email] was easy . . . easy for me, for everybody,” Mr Lazar told Fox News.
The hacker, who is in jail in Alexandria, Virginia, after he was convicted of a series of high-profile computer security breaches, claimed that he was able to access the email system of Mrs Clinton’s confidant, Sidney Blumenthal. He claimed that he then used the information gleaned to break into Mrs Clinton’s emails.
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The former secretary of state’s practice of using a private email server could yet derail her presidential run.
None of the official emails she sent during her tenure at the state department from 2009 to 2013 were sent through an official address.
The FBI is investigating whether the arrangement broke the law by putting sensitive information at risk. CNN reported last night that the FBI had already interviewed several former Clinton aides, including Huma Abedin, her deputy chief of staff at the State Department.
Mrs Clinton’s campaign dismissed Lazar’s claims. “There is absolutely no basis to believe the claims made by this criminal from his prison cell,” the campaign said in a statement.
“In addition to the fact he offers no proof to support his claims, his descriptions of Secretary Clinton’s server are inaccurate.
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“It is unfathomable that he would have gained access to her emails and not leaked them the way he did to his other victims.”
However, the controversy surrounding Mrs Clinton’s email use continues to dog her candidacy. Even if the FBI inquiry concludes that no law was breached, the scandal threatens to foster perceptions that she cannot be trusted. “Hillary for Prison 2016” was one of the best-selling campaign badges at Republican rallies during the primaries.
Mrs Clinton has said she is confident that she will be cleared of any wrongdoing. She has signalled that she would be prepared for what is likely to be a nasty general election battle against Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, over the next six months.
“I’ve been in the arena for 25 years and I think that nearly everything that can be thrown at somebody in politics and public life has come my way,” Mrs Clinton said.