Platte River Networks, a Denver company, subpoenaed as part of Republican investigation into Clinton email server

Two congressmen issued subpoenas to Denver-based Platte River Networks and two other firms that maintained Hillary Clinton’s private email servers.
3 min. read
The Hillary Clinton campaign announced the opening of a new office in Fort Collins. Openings in Centennial, Grand Junction, Greeley and Pueblo will follow. (Chloe Aiello/Denverite)

Hillary Clinton at Galvanize in Denver. (Chloe Aiello/Denverite)

Two Republican congressmen issued subpoenas Monday to Denver-based Platte River Networks and two other technology firms that maintained Hillary Clinton’s private email servers.

Last month, the FBI ceased their investigation of Clinton due to lack of evidence. But the Congressmen responsible for a July 12 information request from the same companies, Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, Chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson of Minnesota, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, evidently aren’t finished yet.

This latest subpoena is an effort that follows up on the July information request that they found unsatisfactory.

Platte River Networks was hired to host Clinton’s private server four months after she left office as Secretary of State. Even so, they say they’ve cooperated fully.

“Platte River has fully cooperated for almost a year. Right now, we can’t figure out what other data could possibly be out there to help them,” Kenneth Eichner, Platte’s defense attorney, told the Denver Post. He explained that Platte employees submitted to interviews and acquiesced to all FBI document requests.

In a letter to Platte River Networks, Smith and Johnson said Platte River Networks’ refusal to comply necessitated the subpoena. Furthermore, the Congressmen said that their authority and interest in the server extended beyond the criminal investigation by the FBI, which concluded with no charges. They chided Platte River Networks for not responding to a voluntary request for more information.

"PRN is uniquely situated to provide firsthand information about Secretary Clinton's private server and email account," the letter says. "The timeline of PRN's involvement with Secretary Clinton's email system suggests that PRN has unique knowledge about the state of Secretary Clinton's system at the time she left the State Department. In addition, at least two PRN employees had repeated and detailed communications with representatives of Secretary Clinton about the email system for a period of several years.”

Two Democratic congressmen who also sit in the Homeland Security and Science and Technology committees also wrote a letter  Monday—to tell Smith and Johnson to back off. 

“As you know, these companies have already turned over all relevant data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and made their employees available for interviews with the FBI,” Representative Eddie Johnson and Senator Tom Carper wrote in the letter. “We have serious concerns regarding the inappropriate use of taxpayer resources in an apparent pursuit of an election-year partisan agenda through these investigations.”

We've reached out to Platte River's attorney and will update this story if we hear back from them.

Multimedia business & healthcare reporter Chloe Aiello can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/chlobo_ilo.

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