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Hillary Clinton on Email Controversy
Hillary Clinton on Email Controversy
Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed the debate over her use of a personal email address during her time as secretary of state.
Video by AP on Publish Date March 10, 2015. Photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times.
Hillary Rodham Clinton discusses her e-mail controversy during a news conference on Tuesday. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times Video
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Hillary Clinton’s Full Press Conference
Hillary Clinton’s Full Press Conference
Hillary Rodham Clinton responds to questions from reporters on her use of a personal email address while serving as secretary of state.
Video by AP on Publish Date March 10, 2015. Photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times.
Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday defended her exclusive use of a private email address during her time as secretary of state as a matter of “convenience,†saying that about 30,000 of her work-related emails would be made public, but that thousands more that she deemed personal had been deleted.
“I thought using one device would be simpler; obviously, it hasn’t worked out that way,†she said in her first public comments since the issue emerged last week.
She said that most of her emails were work-related, went to government employees and were captured on government servers. Mrs. Clinton said that the State Department would make public all of her work-related emails, but that her personal messages — about issues such as her daughter’s wedding and the death of her mother — would remain private.
“I feel that I have taken unprecedented steps to provide these public emails; they will be in the public domain,†she said.
Mrs. Clinton spoke for about 20 minutes during a news conference, delivering a statement on women’s issues and denouncing moves by Republican lawmakers to undermine efforts for a nuclear agreement with Iran, before turning to the controversy over her emails.
Expressing a mix of regret and defensiveness over the matter, Mrs. Clinton emphasized that she broke no laws. “I fully complied with every rule,†she said, adding that no classified material had been sent on her email.
However, she remained steadfast that she would not turn over personal emails and said that those messages in fact had been deleted.
“They were about personal and private matters that I believed were in the scope of my personal privacy and particularly that of other people,†she said. “They had nothing to do with work. I didn’t see a need to keep them.â€
The State Department said on Tuesday that it would publish online the full set of emails provided by Mrs. Clinton from her time as secretary of state.
“We will review the entire 55,000-page set and release in one batch at the end of that review to ensure that standards are consistently applied throughout the entire 55,000 pages,†said Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman. “We said we expect the review to take several months; obviously that hasn’t changed.â€
A smaller set, about 300 emails that had been provided to the select House committee on Benghazi, will be released earlier to the public.
The State Department also said it would give any reasons for redactions, in accordance with Freedom of Information Act guidelines.
Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, the chairman of the Benghazi panel, said he was unsatisfied by Mrs. Clinton’s explanation, raising questions about the security of her private account and calling for access to her server.
“Without access to Secretary Clinton’s personal server, there is no way for the State Department to know it has acquired all documents that should be made public,†he said. “Given State’s delay in disclosing the fact Secretary Clinton exclusively used personal email to conduct State business, there is no way to accept State’s or Secretary Clinton’s certification she has turned over all documents that rightfully belong to the American people.â€
After a week of criticism and questions about the email account, Mrs. Clinton fielded political questions from reporters, something she had not done since her 2008 presidential campaign.
Mrs. Clinton’s time as secretary of state provided her a respite from the campaign press corps, which she felt had turned on her during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.
But as she shapes her 2016 campaign, Mrs. Clinton must wade back into politics, prompted not by her own careful timing but forced by a controversy over whether she intentionally used a private email account to skirt federal records requests for State Department correspondence.
In a Twitter message last week, Mrs. Clinton said she wanted the State Department to release about 50,000 pages of emails. “I want the public to see my email,†she wrote. “I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.â€
But the brief response was not enough to squelch lingering questions about whether her lack of an official email address was intended to shield her correspondence from federal records requests by political opponents, journalists and academics.
The news conference, which took place after she delivered a keynote address on women’s issues at the United Nations, comes during a busy week for Mrs. Clinton. She is participating in back-to-back events in New York that are intended to focus on her activism on women’s issues, which is expected to be a central theme of her 2016 campaign.
Early Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton’s potential opponents had already tried to capitalize on the opportunity to push her off message.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida sent an email to reporters reminding them of his disclosure of personal emails and provided links to news articles criticizing Mrs. Clinton for a lack of transparency.
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