The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
March 4, 2015

Clinton Avoids Public Record Requests Through Private Email Account During State Tenure 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


 
The New York Times reports presumed Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton's exclusive use of a personal email account during her
tenure at the State Department has allowed her to thwart public records
requests for her communications. Clinton's emails were not included in
records provided to congressional investigators probing the 2012 attacks
on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, because Clinton used
only a private account. It was not until last month House investigators
received about 300 of Clinton's emails related to the attack, after
Clinton's advisers selected about 50,000 of her emails to provide to the
State Department. Clinton did not have a government email address at all
during her tenure as secretary of state, and her aides failed to
preserve her emails on government servers in a possible violation of
federal law. The Associated Press traced her email service to an
Internet service registered to her family's home in Chappaqua, New York.
The AP writes: "The highly unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official
physically running her own email would have given Clinton ... impressive
control over limiting access to her message archives." News outlets,
including the AP and Gawker, say they have been unable to obtain
Clinton's communications through public records requests to the State
Department. Department spokesperson Marie Harf defended Clinton under
questioning by reporters.

Marie Harf: "And as soon as we reached out to the former secretary,
Secretary Clinton provided the emails covering the breadth of her time
at the State Department on a wide variety of issues. It's my
understanding that those were provided in that way."

Reporter: "So that's everything? You know, we're talking about the
retention act. It doesn't say, you know, 'vast majority.' It basically
is about all of them."

Marie Harf: "Right. We reached out and asked her to provide them. She
provided a huge — you know, a large amount, that was 55,000."

Reporter: "Right, just say it's everything, if you think" —

Marie Harf: "Well, how can I? I mean, Brad, I'm not in her email."

Reporter: "Did she say it was everything when she sent it back?"

Marie Harf: "When she responded, she said this was what she had, is my
understanding, that was pertinent here."

 

.