Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told Fox News Channel on Thursday that Hillary Clinton’s operatives used BleachBit to prevent the recovery of deleted files. Speaking with Martha MacCallum, he described the process:
“She and her lawyers had those emails deleted, and they didn’t just push the delete button. They had them deleted where even God can’t read them. They were using something called Bleachbit. You don’t use Bleachbit for yoga emails or bridesmaids’ emails. When you’re using Bleachbit, it is something you really do not want the world to see.”
Bleachbit is open source software that describes itself as offering the following data destruction features:
Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster.
While serving as Secretary of State, Clinton used a personal email address and private server through which to send and receive emails in her capacity as head of the State Department. After a lawsuit was filed by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain her emails that evaded automatic electronic governmental capture, she claimed to have turned over all of her “work-related” emails.
Clinton’s legal team has advised Gowdy that the purged emails are not recoverable.
H/T Chuck Ross at The Daily Caller
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