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Clinton aides vow not to destroy emails

Two top aides to Hillary Clinton gave assurances to a federal judge Wednesday that they will not delete any emails or other records related to their work at the State Department during Clinton's tenure as America's top diplomat.

Lawyers for former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills and Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin told the State Department they would abide by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's request that they not erase any copies of federal records in their possession.

In addition, Clinton lawyer David Kendall confirmed that a Colorado technology firm on Wednesday turned over to the Justice Department the private server which housed Clinton's emails while she served as secretary of state. He also said he'd produced three thumb drives with Clinton's digital copies of emails she gave State in paper form last December.

"We have voluntarily provided to the Department of Justice on August 6, 2015, the .pst file containing electronic copies of the 55,000 pages of emails on a thumb drive (along with two copies), which had been securely stored in my possession, after receiving from the Department of Justice an assurance that it would maintain this file in an appropriately secure manner and the Department's opinion that such maintenance would satisfy any preservation obligations I am under," Kendall wrote Wednesday to Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy.

"Similarly, Platte River Networks is today providing to the Department of Justice the server and related equipment on which emails to and from Secretary Clinton's clintonemail.com were stored from 2009-2013 and which PRN took possession of in 2013," Kendall added. "This is following the Department of Justice's assurances to us and to counsel for PRN that it would maintain this equipment in an appropriately secure manner."

Mills's attorney Wilkinson seemed to have triggered Sullivan's preservation-related order last week when she said in a letter filed with the court that Mills planned to delete her digital copies on Monday. Wilkinson stressed in a new letter to Kennedy Wednesday that the only reason Mills had planned to erase her electronic copies was because the State Department had asked her to do so.

"We ask you to clarify with Judge Sullivan that it was the State Department that asked for the return of all copies of potential federal records in Ms. Mills' possession and going forward it will be the State Department's responsibility to secure permission from Judge Sullivan to remove any copies of such emails from Ms. Mills account," Wilkinson wrote. She also seemed eager to underscore that the records Mills had planned to erase were copies of emails already given to the State Department and suggested there was no danger of any records being lost as a result.

A lawyer for Abedin responded to the court's request with an email briefly confirming that she would not be erasing or disposing of any work-related records.

"We want to confirm for the Department that in accordance with your request, Ms. Abedin will not delete any potential federal records in her possession," attorney Miguel Rodriguez wrote.

The correspondence filed with Sullivan Wednesday night (and posted here) came in connection with a lawsuit the conservative group Judicial Watch filed two years ago seeking records related to Abedin's employment arrangements at State. The case was closed last year but Sullivan agreed to reopen it after it became evident that Clinton's email account had not been searched in response to Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act request.