Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, has sent subpoenas to three companies that provided services related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server. The subpoena seeks information on how secure the server was and whether it was protected within the guidelines set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for systems used by government employees. Smith's subpoenas were supported by Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

The subpoenas were sent to executives of the data security firm Datto, SECNAP Network Security, and the ISP and managed services provider Platte River Networks. Datto's SIRIS disaster recovery service was used to back up the e-mail server hosting ClintonEmail.com, and SECNAP provided its Cloudjacket managed intrusion detection and prevention service to the Clinton server. Platte River Networks apparently managed the server for at least part of the period that Clinton and her staff used e-mail accounts on it while at the State Department. All three companies had previously declined to provide information to Smith's committee voluntarily.

In the letter accompanying the subpoena to Platte River Networks CEO Treve Suazo, Smith and Johnson wrote:

PRN is uniquely situated to provide firsthand information about Secretary Clinton's private server and e-mail account. The timeline of PRN's involvement with Secretary Clinton's e-mail system suggests that PRN has unique knowledge about the state of Secretary Clinton's system at the time she left the State Department… The information sought by the Committees is crucial in furthering the Committees' understanding of Secretary Clinton's private server and informing policy changes to prevent similar e-mail arrangements in the future.

Similar language was used in the letters to SECNAP CEO Victor Nappe and Datto CEO Austin McChord. In a statement on the subpoenas, Smith said that in addition to seeking information on whether the e-mail server met NIST standards, "The committee is also concerned about the preservation of the records on Secretary Clinton’s private server. Our committee plans to provide the American people with the transparency they deserve from our government leaders and the systems used to secure operations.”