An email released by WikiLeaks Sunday suggests Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill may have been the originator of a mass Democratic effort to discredit an investigation by the State Department’s independent watchdog into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, the department's top watchdog, launched an investigation, separate from the FBI inquiry, into Clinton's use of a private email server in April 2015.
The result of that inquiry was an 83-page report released in May 2016 that harshly critiqued Clinton for her handling of sensitive information and made plain the Democratic nominee had broken State Department security and archiving protocols for official government communications.
Democrats, sensing early the danger of the independent review's findings, sought to discredit the inspector general, despite the fact Linick had been appointed by President Obama in 2013.
Adam Jentleson, a top aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, planted a story in The New York Times alleging a past connection between a single staffer in the IG's office and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley was evidence of "fishy" activity.
"There does seem to be a fishy pattern here, and a fishy connection," Jentleson told The New York Times.
A separate email released by WikiLeaks last week seems to confirm the Clinton camp had put Reid's office up to the attack on the IG's credibility.
"After hitting a wall with other outlets, NYT will do a story about DiSanto," Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said in a Nov. 13 email to Podesta. "Adam Jentleson in reid's [sic] office is giving a statement saying the connection is troubling and raises questions. Could pop this weekend."
