Daily Mail Reports That Clinton's IT Firm Kept Its Company Servers In A “Bathroom Closet”

Daily Mail: Platte River IT Company Hired By Clinton “Kept Its Server In The Bathroom Closet.” In an August 18 article, the Daily Mail reported that Platte River Networks, the Denver IT firm Hillary Clinton hired to “maintain her private email account,” kept the server “in a bathroom closet.” The article quoted Tom Welch, the co-founder of Platte River, who claimed that the servers were kept in a “bathroom connected to the master closet”:

The IT company Hillary Clinton chose to maintain her private email account was run from a loft apartment and its servers were housed in the bathroom closet, Daily Mail Online can reveal.

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Founded in 2002 by entrepreneurs Treve Suazo, Brent Allshouse and Tom Welch, Platte River Networks worked out of a 1,858 square feet loft apartment in downtown Denver up until this earlier year when they moved to a much bigger 12,000 sq.ft space.

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Clinton's 'homebrew' computer system housed her emails while she was Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013. Platte River Networks provided its services in mid-2013 according to Barbara Wells, the company's lawyer.

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Welch confirmed his former company kept its servers in the bathroom closet.

He said: 'The space that we had our office was essentially designed as a residential unit... the bathroom connected to the master closet and that's what we retrofitted as a server room.'

He claimed the set up was secure, adding: 'Our internal network was extremely secure. At the time Inca St was a relatively obscure location, second floor office. The technology we had in place was pretty good. The security we had in place at the office was really good to protect our well-being.' [Daily Mail, 8/18/15]

Joe Scarborough Distorted Report To Claim Clinton's Own Server Was Kept In A Bathroom

Scarborough: Hillary “Can't Answer Basic Questions” Like “Why She Got A Server In A Denver Condo Loft Bathroom.” On the August 20 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough distorted the Daily Mail's report to claim that Hillary Clinton's campaign was not able to answer “basic questions” about her server, including why it was left in a bathroom:

SCARBOROUGH: They can't answer basic questions because there are no good answers to those questions. There are no good answers to the question of why she got a server in a Denver condo loft bathroom and why America's national security [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 8/20/15]

Conservative Media Previously Promoted Claim That Clinton's Server Was Kept In A Bathroom Closet

NY Post: Clinton's Server Was “Run Out Of An Old Bathroom Closet.” The New York Post claimed in an August 18 article that “Clinton's email servers were” maintained in “an old bathroom closet”:

Hillary Clinton's email servers were maintained by a mom-and-pop outfit -- run out of an old bathroom closet in a downtown Denver loft, according to a published report on Tuesday.

While Platte River Networks has ties to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, it wasn't immediately clearly how the company got hooked up with the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential front-runner, the Daily Mail said. [The New York Post, 8/18/15]

TownHall.com: Company Hired By Clinton To Store Server Kept It In A “Bathroom Closet.” TownHall.com hyped fears that the company hired by Clinton “to host her own personalsever” hosted it “out of a bathroom closet”:

Good news, America. The woman who wants to be the President of the United States hired an email server company to host her own personal server, on which she sent and received top secret classified information, out of a bathroom closet. You just can't make this stuff up. [Townhall.com, 8/18/15]

But Hillary Clinton's Server Was Never Stored In A Bathroom, Or Even In Denver

Denver Post: None Of Clinton's Data Was Ever Stored In A Denver Bathroom. In an August 19 article, The Denver Post reported that Platte River Networks had never stored the server holding Clinton's emails in Denver. The article explained that the server had been moved to “a New Jersey data center” in accordance with “industry best practices” and had never been “in any bathrooms”:

“There never was, at any time, data belonging to the Clintons stored in Denver. Ever,” said Dovetail Solutions CEO [and Platte River Spokesman] Andy Boian, who added that Clinton's server was always in a New Jersey data center. “We do not store data in any bathrooms.”

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“We were literally hired in June 2013,” Boian said, “and because we use industry best practices, we had (Clinton's) server moved to a data center in New Jersey. It remained in that spot until last week,” when the FBI picked it up Aug. 12.

Platte River also is not in possession of any Clinton e-mail backups, he said.

“The role of Platte River Networks was to upgrade, secure and manage the e-mail server for both the Clintons and their staff beginning June 2013. Platte River Networks is not under investigation. We were never under investigation. And we will fully comply with the FBI,” he said. [The Denver Post, 8/19/15]