Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday blasted Hillary Clinton’s exclusive use of a personal email account to conduct official business as secretary of state, calling the practice “unacceptable.”
“It’s sloppy at best,” Graham said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “I mean, what kind of legal advisers did she have? She set up a system totally out of sync with the regulations of her own administration.”
“This just speaks of poor management, poor control, lack of concern for transparency,” Graham added.
A New York Times report revealed Monday night that Clinton did not use a government email while she served as secretary of state, and none of her relevant personal emails were archived at the time by the State Department, as is required by federal law. A spokesman for Clinton told the Times that she followed the “letter and spirit of the rules” by saving her correspondences by personal email on her own server.
Clinton has recently turned over roughly 55,000 pages of those emails to the State Department, the New York Times reported, but the emails were selected by her own staff and Clinton continues to control her full email archive and access to it.
On Wednesday, Graham recommended that members of both parties should be granted access to Clinton’s emails from her tenure as secretary of state so that they can independently select those that are relevant to her State Department business.
Access to the emails, or a lack thereof, could have bearing over an ongoing investigation by a special House committee into the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Graham, who is mulling a bid for the presidency, has been a chief critic of Clinton’s and the State Department’s actions in advance of and following those attacks. Graham’s greatest concern, he said, is that Clinton’s control over her email cache might hinder further investigation into those attacks and the State Department response.
“The role that Secretary Clinton played before, during and after Benghazi is important to me,” Graham said. “The whole email debacle here has to be resolved.”
Congressional Republicans are already putting pressure on Clinton to turn over more emails. The House committee investigating Benghazi, led by Rep. Trey Gowdy, planned to send subpoenas to the State Department on Wednesday for more emails.
The revelation that Clinton used her personal email also could present political challenges for Clinton as she prepares to launch a second bid for the presidency, possibly within the next few months.
Graham said the discovery reflects a larger trend with Bill and Hillary Clinton of dismissing controversies or taking steps to mask them.
“There’s always something not quite there when it comes to the Clintons and bad news stories,” Graham said. “There’s a history here of, when something bad happens they’re always having an excuse. … There’s always a challenge to find out exactly what happened.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have not been quick to jump to Clinton’s defense. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Clinton used a personal email account in spite of “very specific guidance” urging officials to use government accounts.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she will withhold her judgment on the matter pending more information.
“Let’s see when all the facts come in,” Feinstein said. “I have great belief and very strong feelings that are positive for Hillary.”
