The Defense Department released more than 30 pages of Secretary Ashton Carter’s emails Friday morning after it was reported earlier this week that he had been using his personal email for official business.
The emails mostly deal with mundane scheduling, hiring staff and handling speaking requests. The majority are between Carter and his top military and civilian advisers: Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis, who was recently removed from his job amid an ongoing investigation, and Eric Fanning, the current acting secretary of the Army.
In one, Carter asks if it’s possible to get a quote from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates to use at the ceremony for when Michael Vickers, undersecretary of intelligence, stepped down earlier this year.
In another, he asks his aides for advice on whether he should go on Charlie Rose’s TV show.
“I like him. Not sure about whether now is time or later,” Carter wrote in an email dated April 26. “One thought is that it’s better to do this now, so my first TV exposure isn’t on Sunday shows defending/explaining some ugly crisis. On the other hand, don’t want to appear a showboat.”
The emails are dated in March and April. Carter took over as secretary of defense in February.
The controversy over Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email during her time as Obama’s secretary of state broke in March.
The New York Times first reported Carter’s use of personal email for work on Wednesday and obtained his emails under the Freedom of Information Act.
Carter told reporters that he “should have known better.”
“It’s not like I didn’t have the opportunity to understand what the right thing to do is,” he said. “I didn’t do the right thing. This is entirely on me.”
Lawmakers have said that they will look into Carter’s use of personal email for work next year, including if any classified information was sent via personal email.
“With all the public attention surrounding the improper use of personal email by other administration officials, it is hard to believe that Secretary Carter would exercise the same error in judgment,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “The Senate Armed Services Committee has requested copies of the emails and will be conducting a review to ensure that sensitive information was not compromised.”
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Carter has never sent classified information via email and that all work email received on his personal account has been properly preserved in the federal record.
Carter has said that he no longer uses email, official or personal, for work.
