The Washington Post’s editorial board blasted Hillary Clinton Wednesday evening over her use of a private email server to handle classified information, opining that she had been “disturbingly unmindful of the rules.”
“Ms. Clinton had plenty of warnings to use official government communications methods, so as to make sure that her records were properly preserved and to minimize cybersecurity risks,” the Post’s editorial board wrote. “She ignored them.”
The unsigned editorial came hours after the State Department’s inspector general issued an 83-page report that found Clinton had broken federal records rules.
In the event that employees of the department needed to transmit sensitive information through external channels, the report said, they were told to ask for help from tech specialists. Nonetheless, the Post’s editorial staff noted, that report found “no evidence” Clinton ever asked, “despite the fact that emails exchanged on her personal account regularly contained information” marked as sensitive.
Borrowing from an argument Democrats often use in the former secretary of state’s defense, the Post suggested that several secretaries who preceded Clinton had acted in a similar manner by using personal email addresses. However, it added, Clinton had shown a particular disregard for the warnings she had received during her tenure.
“The department’s email technology was archaic,” the Post said. “Other staffers also used personal email … without preserving the records. But there is no excuse for the way Ms. Clinton breezed through all the warnings and notifications. While not illegal behavior, it was disturbingly unmindful of the rules.”
“In the middle of the presidential campaign, we urge the FBI to finish its own investigation soon, so all information about this troubling episode will be before the voters,” the editorial added.
