Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Thursday Hillary Clinton’s defense of her private email use is “crumbling” thanks to a finding from the State Department inspector general that suggested Clinton withheld work-related emails from the government.
“The fact Hillary Clinton failed to turn over multiple work-related emails directly related to the setup of her secret server is the latest indication she is trying to hide the truth from voters,” Priebus said in a statement. “Even now, Clinton continues to repeat falsehoods discredited by Wednesday’s damning Inspector General report confirming she did not comply with federal law.”
The RNC chairman pointed to an Associated Press report that focused on three emails cited in the watchdog audit that were not included among the 55,000 pages of records Clinton provided State in late 2014.
She has since claimed to have turned over all emails that could be considered related to her work as secretary of state, even touting her surrender of 30,000 messages as a signal of her commitment to transparency.
But the three emails, each of which discussed Clinton’s use of a private communication network in an official capacity, were not included among those messages.
The inspector general also noted weeks-long gaps in which no official emails were provided.
Clinton’s omission has renewed suspicion that the Democratic front-runner intentionally withheld records once stored on her personal server.
The missing messages discussed setting up a “state.gov” account for Clinton, an idea that was shot down by top Clinton aides after a technology worker pointed out that doing so would have subjected the former secretary’s records to the Freedom of Information Act, according to the watchdog report.
