. >> joseph schmidt, former pentagon inspector general in george w.h's administration, approached the fbi and other government agencies to remove e-mails from the dark web, he believed that they were hillary clinton's missing e-mails from a private server. jim sciutto has details. >> reporter: cnn has learned that a trurmg cmp campaign advi played a deal role in an effort to find hillary clinton's 30,000 deleted e-mails and reveal any damaging information within them. >> not easy being a whistleblow whistleblower. >> reporter: joseph schmidt was a foreign policy adviser to the campaign. seen here with then candidate trump in march 2016. meeting with officials at the fbi, state department and intelligence communities, he told them a source he called patriot mad discovhad discovere believed were the deleted e-mails. so he pushed to review and declassify the material so he and others could review it. all this according to multiple sources with direct knowledge. officials at the state department and inspector general briefly interviewed him, but declined

. >> joseph schmidt, a former inspector general, was a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, seen here seated at the table with candidate trump in 2016, meeting with the intelligence communities inspector generals, he told them a source called patriot had discovered what he believed were the deleted e-mails on the dark web. smith then pushed for the material to be declassified. all this according to multiple sources with direct knowledge. officials at the state department and inspector general briefly interviewed smids but they declined to review or accept the information. the fbi also interviewed him as part of its ongoing criminal investigation into clinton's e-mails. schmitz then took his information to the house intelligence committee. this is the latest in trump's advisers mixed up in trying to find dirt on clinton. steve bannon said in february the trump staff were repeatedly contacted by people for ways to get the e-mails. a trump official said cnn does not comment on matters of interest to the special counsel or committees. the material was not verified. "i'm pretty sure they w

. >> joseph schmidt was a adviser to the campaign, seated at a capable it candidate trump. >> meetings at the tbs, stay department and intelligence -- he told them a source he called patriot had discovered what he believed were deleted e-mails on the dark web. schmidt then pushed for the gooch to review so they could review it without jeopardizing schmitz's security clearance. they declined to review or accept the information s the fbi also interviewed as part of its ongoing investigation. >> they did investigates. >> reporter: schmitz then took his information to the house committee. this is the latest information of trump advisers trying to -- trump staff were repeatedly contacted we outsiders suggesting ways to get the e-mails. a trump campaign officials tells cnn, quote, the campaign does not comment of matters of interest to the special counsel or the congressional committees. the material was never verified, a cybersecurity expert who saw the material, told cnn it appeared to be fake based on what he read and where it was posted. i'm pretty sure they was on the dark we had equiv

think that is one of the reasons why you see so much interest, so many attempts for people like joseph schmidtsapoulos and the don jr. meeting at the trump tower, they believe there was something here to disqualify her and they thought they needed that out of nowhere shot to take her out because simply te didn't think they had a chance short of that. >> well sam, they certainly seemed obsessed with getting hillary clinton's e-mails and to -- to both chris and jim's point, he was one of the first five campaign foreign policy advisers named by the trump campaign and others were carter page, george papadapoulos and who pled guilty to mueller -- to lying. so what does this say about the cast of characters that trump had working for him. >> that is not who i think anyone would want advising us on anything other than doing something illegal. and i think that schmitz is just the latest in the group of shady characters surrounding donald trump and there is a point that we haven't discussed which is the russians all knew that these campaign characters were trying to get access to illegal information and

policy adviser made efforts to find dirt on hillary clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, joseph schmidtleted e-mails from her private server. jim sciutto has details. >> reporter: cnn learned that a trump campaign adviser played a key role in an effort to find hillary clinton's 30,000 deleted e-mails on the dark web. >> wow. >> reporter: and reveal any damaging information contained within them. >> it's not easy being a whistleblower. >> reporter: joseph submit, a former inspector general was a foreign policy adviser to the campaign. seen here seats at a table with then-candidate trump in march 2016. meeting with officials at the fbi, state department and the intelligence communities inspector general, he told them a source he called patriot had discovered what he believed were the deleted e-mails on the dark web. schmidt pushed for the government to de-classify the material so he and others could review it without jeopardizing his security clearance. all this according to multiple sources with direct knowledge. officials at the state department and inspector general briefly interviewed