A State Department watchdog denounced Hillary Clinton’s lax use of a private email server Wednesday, writing that Clinton did not properly preserve correspondence and subjected herself to security risks without seeking counsel.
The report revealed that the former secretary of state did not comply with the Federal Records Act. Clinton and her aides refused to be interviewed for the report, despite its wide scope.
The inspector general (IG) interviewed former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice, as well as current Secretary of State John Kerry, and ultimately faulted the State Department for “longstanding, systematic weaknesses” in preserving information, the Associated Press reported.
The IG did, however, single Clinton out, criticizing her for failing to submit her personal email correspondence during or immediately after tenure as secretary of state.
“Secretary Clinton should have preserved any Federal records she created and received on her personal account by printing and filing those records with the related files in the Office of the Secretary,” the report said, according to Politico. “At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act.”
In 2010, a Clinton aide was notified of potential problems with Clinton’s lax record preservation but claimed that her method was legally approved, the Washington Post reported. The IG, however, could not evidence a legal review.
The IG also condemned Clinton for not seeking counsel on whether to handle work-related emails on her cell phone. Information officers “would have refused the request because of security risks,” according to the Associated Press.
NBC’s Ken Dilanian said that the IG report shows that “key information technology officials” were “not aware” of Clinton’s use of the server, though the former secretary of state’s office has claimed otherwise.
“They had never approved it, she never asked them. And they’re saying that she should have gotten approval from them, they probably wouldn’t have granted it actually,” Dilanian said.
Clinton has shrugged off her use of a private email server in the past, saying in April that there’s “nothing to it.” She is the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation into her use of the server, though her campaign calls the investigation a “security inquiry.”
Some Clinton aides have been interviewed as part of the investigation, including Clinton confidante Huma Abedin. Clinton has yet to be interviewed, but said in May that she is “more than ready to talk to anybody, anytime.”
