--- title: "“Lock Her Up”: Trump’s Team Is Now Doing the Exact Thing They Screamed About Hillary Clinton Doing" description: "Donald Trump's presidential transition team is using private email servers to conduct government business. Sound familiar?" date: "2024-12-19" modified: "2024-12-19" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-private-server-hillary" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "donald trump" - "email" - "politics" - "the digest" --- # “Lock Her Up”: Trump’s Team Is Now Doing the Exact Thing They Screamed About Hillary Clinton Doing ![Donald Trump's presidential transition team is using private email servers to conduct government business. Sound familiar?]() *\Image: Jeff Swensen via Getty\* ## Private E Remember when [Donald Trump called for his opponent Hillary Clinton]() to be "locked up" for using a private email server to conduct government business? As it turns out, he doesn't seem to be applying the same standard to his own White House. As [*Politico* reports](), officials trying to coordinate with the Trump transition team are raising red flags over their use of private servers and non-government devices — especially after both [China]() and [Iran tried to hack Trump]() and his running mate JD Vance ahead of the election. According to Michael Daniel, a former White House cybersecurity coordinator during the second Obama administration who now runs his own security nonprofit, those concerns remain salient. "I can assure you that the transition teams are targets for foreign intelligence collection," Daniel told *Politico*. "There are a lot of countries out there that want to know: What are the policy plans for the incoming administration?" Trump's team has, according to the report, conducted an entirely privatized transition. Instead of working with any .gov emails or servers, the transition is instead sending emails associated with the transition47.com, trumpvancetransition.com, and djtfp24.com websites. The Trump transition is also using its own cybersecurity support, *Politico* notes. All this, it's worth noting, is exactly what sank Clinton's campaign in 2016 — and put Trump in the White House instead. ## Ample Attestation Officials with the outgoing Biden administration have, according to two insiders who spoke to the website, advised their people that they can choose to meet for in-person document exchanges and meetings that could otherwise have been done electronically. A White House spokesperson told *Politico* that federal agencies have been reminded that they can choose to "only offer in-person briefings and reading rooms in agency spaces" if they're concerned about security, and that they can require officials with the Trump transition to "attest" their security is up to government snuff. "Because they don’t have official emails, people are really wary to share things," a State Department official told *Politico* on condition of anonymity. "I’m not going to send sensitive personnel information to some server that lives at Mar-a-Lago while there are so many fears of doxxing and hacking." "They have to physically come and look at the documents on campus," the official continued, "especially for anything with national security implications." A spokesperson for the Trump transition, meanwhile, confirmed that the team is conducting all its business on a "transition-managed email server" and insisted that it's using "security and information protections," without specifying what they were. According to that spox, using private servers eliminates the need for "additional government and bureaucratic oversight" — a far cry from the "[lock her up]()" battle cry of yore. **More on team Trump:** [*Elon Musk Throws Tantrum, Ordering Congress to Shut Down Government*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()