Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email controversy has opened up a new front in the House’s investigation of the 2012 Benghazi attack, with Rep. Trey Gowdy saying Tuesday that his investigators would be going straight to Clinton and her team to obtain all relevant correspondence.
The New York Times reported late Monday that Clinton used only a personal email account to conduct official business while at State, a legally murky and politically hazardous practice. Federal rules about record-keeping during her tenure stated that officials were advised to use a government email account for official purposes, but they weren’t required to do so if the government made sure the emails were preserved.
Because her aides did not take such steps, the Times reported, watchdogs are turning up the heat on Clinton — including Gowdy and his select committee tasked with investigating Benghazi.
“The State Department does not have all of the former Secretary’s emails on its servers, only she has the complete record,” Gowdy said Tuesday, per The Blaze. “And the committee is going to have to go to her, her lawyers and her email providers to ensure we have access to everything the American people are entitled to know.”
Gowdy already wrote in official correspondence last month that both Republicans and Democrats on the committee would like Clinton to testify “as soon as possible.”
While Clinton’s team has defended her from wrongdoing, outside groups have been unable to secure a full list of her official writing. Gawker and the Times both detailed instances of the State Department failing to satisfy records requests, for example.
“[A]n examination of records requests sent to the [State] department reveals how the practice protected a significant amount of her correspondence from the eyes of investigators and the public,” the Times wrote.
As such, it’s been impossible to ascertain if there are records related to Benghazi that have yet to be turned over by Clinton or the government. Gowdy’s committee has received some emails — the Washington Times places the number around 300 — but Clinton’s practice of private email exchange has necessitated the search for more.
“We’ve been asking [the State Department] for months and months and months for certain emails, and we just now find out that those emails were never going to be produced because they don’t have custody of them.”
