The Note: The Situation With The Server

— -- NOTABLES

--CLINTON DIRECTS TEAM TO TURN OVER PRIVATE EMAIL SERVER, THUMB DRIVE: Hillary Clinton has directed her staff to give the Department of Justice the private email server that she used during her tenure as Secretary of State, ABC's LIZ KREUTZ reports. Clinton's team has also turned over a thumb drive containing emails that she has already provided to the State Department, according to a campaign official. The move comes amid a federal investigation into the security of the server and whether there was classified information in the emails. http://abcn.ws/1PjGTJA

--BACKSTORY: The State Department is in the process of reviewing and releasing some 30,000 emails that were sent during Clinton's time at the state department. A Clinton campaign official said the camp believes there are no State Department emails on the server and all of the emails on the thumb drive have already been turned over. The official also said that the inquiry was regarding the security of the server, not the content of the emails. http://abcn.ws/1PjGTJA

--ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: If there was any doubt that Hillary Clinton was enjoying the summer of Trump, a thumb drive and a private server revealed the answers. Now comes the question of what else they'll reveal, and therein lies the challenge to the Clinton campaign. A campaign official said authorities will find nothing new, since the thumb drive is a copy of the emails already provided to the State Department, and the server has been wiped clean of her emails from her time at State. Yet even assuming the FBI doesn't have forensic capabilities that can reveal something previously erased, the turning over of the thumb drive and the server tell us a few important things. First, Clinton herself is no longer comfortable standing by her assertion that there's no reason to let authorities see her server. Second, the investigation into the emails is heading in a serious direction regarding the handling of classified and sensitive information. Third - and most lastingly, perhaps - the questions and storylines involving Clinton's unusual email practices are now guaranteed to last months or even longer. Remember that Congress is not seeing the server, and is being updated on investigations that are turning up highly classified information just in the emails that have been turned over to State.