Democrats scrambled on Tuesday (March 3) to contain the fallout from revelations that their favored 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton’s used a personal email account during her term as secretary of state — a possible violation of federal law.
Her bypassing of official communications at the State Department fed a political narrative that Republicans want to use to damage Clinton, that the wife of former President Bill Clinton is obsessed with secrecy and has something to hide.
The news appeared to catch the Clinton camp off guard as her inner circle discusses whether to accelerate the formation of a campaign organization to April or May instead of this summer, which would allow her team to have a faster, more robust response to the various charges thrown her way.
Clinton was President Barack Obama’s first-term secretary of state from 2009 to early 2013. During her tenure, she used a personal email account, officials now acknowledge, in what at the least may have been a technical violation of laws requiring all official documents to be preserved.
“Secretary Clinton provided the emails covering the breadth of her time at thestate department on a wide variety of issues,” said State Departmentspokeswoman Marie Harf.
Asked whether Clinton submitted all of the emails sent during her term, Harf said when Clinton responded, “she said this was what she had.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest also fielded questions about Clinton’s use of a personal email account to conduct government business.
Earnest said the Clinton team “succeeded” in making sure the records were properly preserved and maintained.
“We have some evidence to back that up in that hundreds of those records, we know, have been turned over to congress in response to legitimate oversight from congress.” said Earnest.
On Capitol Hill, Republican Trey Gowdy, head of the Select Benghazi committeecriticized the state department for not addressing the email issue earlier.
“Despite some attacks from those who claim that all of the questions regardingBenghazi have been asked and answered, the revelation that Secretary Clinton used this personal email accounts lays that claim bare. It also lays bare the claim that any other committee has issued the definitive report on Benghazi.”
The death of four Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi has been a sticking point for Republicans who claim the Obama administration deliberately withheld information about the events preceding the deadly attack.
James Lewis, a technical expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who spoke to Reuters said it wasn’t uncommon for a senior official to use their own personal email.
However, an aide to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Rice, who served under Republican President George W. Bush, generally did not typically use email during her tenure but when she did it was through the State Department system.
REUTERS/NBC//WHITE HOUSE HANDOUT
