Hillary's Email Firn was Run from a Loft Apartment with its Servers in the Bathroom
By Hugi Daniel
DailyMail.com
The IT company Hilary Clinton chose to maintain her private email account was run from a loft apartment and its servers were housed in the bathroom closet, Daily Mail Online can reveal.
Daily Mail Online tracked down ex-employees of Platte River Networks in Denver, Colorado, who revealed the outfit's strong links to the Democratic Party but expressed shock that the 2016 presidential candidate chose the small private company for such a sensitive job.
One, Tera Dadiotis, called it 'a mom and pop shop' which was an excellent place to work, but hardly seemed likely to be used to secure state secrets. And Tom Welch, who helped found the company, confirmed the servers were in a bathroom closet.
It can also be disclosed that the small number of employees who were aware of the Clinton contract were told to keep it secret.
The way in which Clinton came to contract a company described as a 'mom and pop' operation remains unclear.
However Daily Mail Online has established a series of connections between the firm and the Democratic Party.
Home to the home-brew server: This is the apartment complex where Platte River Networks was based until this year. It used a residential apartment as its base
'Mom and pop': Platte River Networks was housed in this apartment. The servers were in a closet off the bathroom, former employees tell Daily Mail Online
Rising tally: A report suggests State Department Investigators have already found 60 emails sent from Hillary Clinton's private server with classified information on them. She is pictured at the Iowa State Fair
Platte River Networks worked for Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper - once heavily tipped to be Clinton's 2016 running mate - during his election to be mayor of the city in 2003
The company's controversial vice president of sales David DeCamillis is also said to be a 'big Democrat' supporter who offered his house to Joe Biden for the party's convention held in Denver in 2008.
It will be the small scale of the firm and its own home-made arrangements which will raise the most significant questions over security and over what checks Clinton's aides made about how suitable it was for dealing with what new transpires to be classified material.
Daily Mail Online spoke to former employees of the firm, including Tera Dadiotis, who was a customer relations consultant between 2007 and 2010.
Describing it as 'a great place to work, but kind of like a mom and pop shop', Tera reacted with disbelief that her former company was hired to manage the email system of Democratic juggernaut Hilary Clinton.
Speaking to Daily Mail Online at her home in Castle Rock, Colorado, Tera said: 'I think it's really bizarre, I don't know how that relationship evolved.
'At the time I worked for them they wouldn't have been equipped to work for Hilary Clinton because I don't think they had the resources, they were based out of a loft, so [it was] not very high security, we didn't even have an alarm.
New headquarters: This office in Colorado is the new based for Platte River Networks.
Open for business: Platte River Networks celebrated the opening of its new office with this group picture of staff. Former staff said the firm had been a fairly small-scale operation
'I don't know how they run their operation now, but we literally had our server racks in the bathroom. I mean knowing how small Platte River Networks... I don't see how that would be secure [enough for Clinton].'
Founded in 2002 by entrepreneurs Treve Suazo, Brent Allshouse and Tom Welch, Platte River Networks worked out of a 1,858 square feet loft apartment in downtown Denver up until this earlier year when they moved to a much bigger 12,000 sq.ft space.
The company celebrated the upgrade with an open house party on June 18, which they excitedly posted on their website and facebook page.
Describing the old office, Tera, 30, said: 'It was a loft downtown and they [the co-founders] owned it. It was one big open space where we had cubicles and two bathrooms.
'I actually lived in the same building.'
Clinton's 'homebrew' computer system housed her emails while she was Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013. Platte River Networks provided its services in mid-2013 according to Barbara Wells, the company's lawyer.
In March Clinton said she wiped the server clean but experts say some of the more than 60,000 emails she deleted may be recoverable.
The server is now in the hands of the FBI who took it off Platte River Networks hands last Wednesday.
