Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used only private email for all her work emails during her time at the department, an act that is in violation of the Federal Records Act that requires all government officials to use government email in all official transactions to preserve records and maintain security.
The New York Times reports that Clinton, who is widely believed to be the Democratic front-runner for the next presidential elections, never used a state.gov email address during her four years at the department, and her staff did not do anything to preserve her emails on government servers.
The private email address was discovered only recently by the House Select Committee on Benghazi investigating the American Consulate attack in Benghazi, during which the committee required correspondences between Clinton and her staff regarding the attack. The State Department complied with the request, releasing around 900 pages of 300 emails from Clinton.
Clinton left the State Department in 2013. However, the New York Times says it was only as recent as two months ago that Clinton's staff reviewed her emails and submitted some 55,000 pages of emails in an effort by the department to comply with record-keeping rules. It is unclear what process Clinton's staff used to determine which emails were submitted to the department.
"In response to our request, Sec. Clinton provided the department with emails spanning her time at the department," says Marie Harf, spokesperson for the State Department, in a statement. "After the State Department reviewed those emails, last month the State Department produced about 300 emails responsive to recent requests from the Select Committee."
Under federal law, all letters and emails sent and received by government officials are considered government records and must be kept on government-owned servers so that the public can obtain access to them. The only exemptions are top-secret, classified emails pertaining to matters of high sensitivity.
The report reflects the Clinton's penchant for secrecy and lack of transparency in their official dealings in government, which has been the subject of long-standing criticism by transparency advocates and the public.
"It is very difficult to conceive of a scenario - short of nuclear winter - where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business," says former National Archives and Records Administration director of litigation Jason R. Baron.
Baron, who has worked at the agency from 2000 to 2013, says he cannot recall any instance when a high-ranking official used personal email solely for work.
Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a government transparency advocacy group at George Washington University, calls it "a shame" that the record-keeping did not automatically take place when Clinton was Secretary of State. He also cites President Barack Obama, who conducts all his email transactions via a secure government account.
"Personal emails are not secure," Blanton says. "Senior officials should not be using them."
But Nick Merrill, Clinton's spokesperson, defends her behavior and says she complied with the "letter and spirit of the rules." He does not provide an explanation as to why Clinton chose to use her private email for official government business, but says that she "had every expectation they would be retained," referring to her emails sent to other State Department officials. It does not account for Clinton's emails sent to government officials outside the department or those in the private sector.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who last month released thousands of pages of emails from his eight years as governor, took the opportunity to taunt Clinton on Twitter. Bush is seeking Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential elections.
Transparency matters. Unclassified @HillaryClinton emails should be released. You can see mine, here. https://t.co/wZbtwd8O2j
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) March 3, 2015
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