The State Department watchdog accused Hillary Clinton of breaking federal records rules while secretary of state, in a forthcoming report that faults her and her predecessors for poorly managing email and other computer information.

(Article by FoxNews.com, republished from //www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/25/state-department-audit-faults-clinton-on-emails-says-broke-records-rules.html?intcmp=hpbt1)

Fox News has obtained a copy of the State Department inspector general audit. The 78-page report says the department and its secretaries were “slow to recognize and to manage effectively the legal requirements and cybersecurity risks associated with electronic data communications, particularly as those risks pertain to its most senior leadership.”

It cites “longstanding, systemic weaknesses” related to communications that started before Clinton’s appointment as secretary of state.

But the report singles out Clinton’s failures as more serious.

It specifically accuses her of violating department policy by not giving over emails when she left office.

The report says: “Secretary Clinton should have preserved any Federal records she created and received on her personal account by printing and filing those records with the related files in the Office of the Secretary … at a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act.”

The review came after revelations Clinton exclusively used a private email account and server while in office. Clinton is now the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

The audit comes as the FBI is thought to be nearing the final phases of its own investigation into Clinton’s email use as secretary of state.

On another front, Romanian hacker Guccifer – who recently claimed he breached Clinton’s server – pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to separate hacking charges.

Under a deal struck with the federal government, he has agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in the future. The plea agreement does not mention the FBI investigation of Clinton’s email practices or his claims that he accessed her private server in March 2013. Such agreements typically do not stipulate how a defendant will aid the government.

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