She’s talked a lot about her “hard choices,” but this was definitely the wrong choice.
Hillary Clinton exclusively used a private e-mail account during her four years as secretary of State, thereby potentially violating federal rules, The New York Times reported Monday night.
She did not have a government e-mail account whatsoever.
Moreover, Clinton aides did nothing to archive the messages from Clinton’s personal e-mail account on department servers despite the fact that it is mandated by the Federal Records Act, as federal officials’ e-mails — those sent and received — qualify as government records.
From the Times:
Her expansive use of the private account was alarming to current and former National Archives and Records Administration officials and government watchdogs, who called it a serious breach.
When asked for comment, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill would not say why Hillary elected to use a personal e-mail account but explained that Clinton had “every expectation” her e-mails to other officials at the State Department would be archived on government servers because her colleagues were using government addresses.
However, Merrill declined to address e-mails the former secretary of State may have sent to foreign leaders or other individuals outside the State Department, which of course raises eye brows amidst controversy surrounding the massive donations provided to the Clinton Foundation from foreign governments.
The spokesman did insist, however, that Hillary has been complying with the “letter and spirit of the rules.”
Unsurprisingly, responses to the report of her personal e-mail account have been quite critical:
Transparency matters. Unclassified @HillaryClinton emails should be released. You can see mine, here. http://t.co/wZbtwd8O2j
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) March 3, 2015
Was this so @HillaryClinton could conduct diplomacy and fundraising at the same time? http://t.co/jpxqm4QNLT
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) March 3, 2015
And, of course, a little humorous:
When Hillary’s emails come out, we’ll find that it’s mostly just sale spam from Banana Republic and Seamless.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) March 3, 2015
Good news: Hillary Clinton is on Compuserve, so she hasn’t gotten her emails for the past 10 years anyway
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) March 3, 2015
Hillary just didn’t want to clog the State Department w/ scam emails like, “Hello, I’m stuck in Algeria with no way to send this money…”
— Michael B Dougherty (@michaelbd) March 3, 2015
At the least, the e-mail controversy will likely provide a significant bump in the road for Clinton, who is expected to announce her candidacy in the near future.
