Two U.S. government officials reportedly say an “attempt” was made to wipe the hard drive of Hillary Clinton’s email server—or, in other words, remove all data on it. NBC News quotes an FBI official as being optimistic that the data can be recovered. Clinton’s campaign told PolitiFact that “work-related emails were deleted after she turned them over to the State Department” last December, which means before she handed the server over to the FBI last month. The exact date is unknown. The Associated Press reported earlier Tuesday that investigators may be able to discern how secure her email system was, whether its files had been backed up, and if anyone else had accounts on the system.
At a press conference later Tuesday, Clinton refused to answer whether she had wiped the server. When asked, she jokingly said, “With a cloth?”