Hillary Clinton’s communication’s director delivered a perplexing and often erratic defense of her boss’ private email server in a preview of a Bloomberg interview released on Wednesday.
Jennifer Palmieri said "I don’t know" or "I don’t understand" how wiping a server works at least ten times in one minute with John Heilemann.
Clinton refused to say whether she ordered her server to be completely wiped on Tuesday, deflecting Ed Henry’s questions.
Palmieri initially said Clinton did not order anyone in her staff to wipe her server, only to delete any of the emails they deemed personal in nature. However, the senior aide to Clinton walked back the statement while stuttering in confusion over the technical difference between deleting emails and wiping a server.
"When I delete an email, I hit delete," Heilemann said. "That’s all I do; that’s all most Americans do."
Palmieri stammered that she did not know what was ordered beyond simply deleting the personal emails. The Washington Times reported the State Department destroyed the government issued Blackberry devices of two top Clinton aides, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin. Abedin has hired lawyers for her role with Clinton’s server.
"That’s not the question I’m asking," Heilemann said. "You are saying she did not direct anyone to do more than merely delete the emails."
Now defensive, Palmieri responded, "I’m saying they had them go through it, and like - they deleted the emails."
The FBI says it is optimistic it will be able to retrieve information from the server despite it being wiped clean.
"Everyone’s an expert on inflating footballs and now everyone is an expert on wiping server," Palmieri said. "I don’t know how all of that works."