NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 9:31 AM
Updated: Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 2:30 PM
So much for the one-device excuse.
Hillary Clinton sent personal and work emails to her staff on an iPad as well as a BlackBerry while secretary of state, a new bombshell report claims — contradicting her explanation that she exclusively used a personal email address on a homebrew server so that she could carry a single device.
Clinton also frequently confused personal correspondences with official ones, mistakenly replying to State-related emails with private information intended as responses for other emails, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
In a September 2011 response from Clinton’s personal account to an email sent by adviser Huma Abedin, reportedly about drone strikes in Pakistan, the then-secretary replied with questions that appear to be about decorations for a party.
"I like the idea of these,'' Clinton wrote, according to the AP. "How high are they? What would the bench be made of? And I'd prefer two shelves or attractive boxes/baskets/ conmtainers (sic) on one. What do you think?''
In response, Abedin wrote: "Did u mean to send to me," prompting Clinton to write back:
"No-sorry! Also, pls let me know if you got a reply from my ipad. I'm not sure replies go thru.''
Another batch of emails show Clinton reacting angrily to leaks of classified government information to the media.
Referencing a CNN story, which described "loose lips'' in the Obama administration, Clinton asked two officials if she should comment on the matter.
"I think this is both dishonorable and dangerous and want to find way to say it,'' she wrote.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told the AP that the former secretary used her iPad from time to time, primarily to read news clippings. Merrill did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily News.
The batch of emails obtained by The Associated Press came from and were sent to Clinton's private email address, hosted on a server at her property in Chappaqua, N.Y., and did not contain sensitive information, the news agency said.
The revelations, however, mark a stark contradiction to Clinton's explanation — offered earlier this month in response to reports that she used just one personal email account based on a private server for all of her electronic correspondence while secretary of state — that she simply didn't feel like using more than one device for emailing.
"I saw it as a matter of convenience," Clinton, who is all but certain to run for the presidency in 2016, told reporters March 10. "It was allowed."
"Looking back, it would have been better if I'd used a (government) second email account and carried a second phone, but at the time it didn't seem like this was an issue," she said then.
Clinton has turned over tens of thousands of work-related emails to the State Department, but has also deleted tens of thousands of others that the former top diplomat has said were personal, non-work-related correspondence.
It remains unclear, however, whether Clinton deleted emails, such as the ones just uncovered by the AP, that contained both work and personal matters.
Many within political and tech circles have questioned why Clinton didn't simply set up a work account and a personal account on single device and switch back and forth — like many in similar situations do.
Clinton also could have just split her accounts, reverting to an official state.gov email account and BlackBerry for work and leaving her personal email on her iPad.
Multiple Republicans have since called for Clinton to turn over the entire private server to a neutral third party to determine which of her emails were personal and which were public record. Clinton has so far refused those requests.
On Tuesday, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, who is chairing a special House committee investigating the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi, requested that Clinton formally testify before the panel by May 1 about why she set up the private server and deleted so many emails.
"Because of the Secretary's unique arrangement with herself as it relates to public records during and after her tenure as Secretary of State, this Committee is left with no alternative but to request Secretary Clinton appear before this Committee for a transcribed interview to better understand decisions the Secretary made relevant to the creation, maintenance, retention, and ultimately deletion of public records," Gowdy, who, last week, accused Clinton of permanently deleting all of her personal emails from her private email server, wrote in a letter to Clinton's attorneys.
Meanwhile, a new poll showed that the ongoing controversy over Clinton's emails has taken its toll on her 2016 prospects in a handful of key swing-states.
Clinton now trails Republican challengers in Florida and Pennsylvania and is up only narrowly in Ohio, a series of Quinnipiac University polls released Tuesday showed.
In Florida, former Gov. Jeb Bush leads Clinton 45% to 42%, the poll showed, while in Pennsylvania, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) beat out Clinton 45% to 44%.
Similar Quinnipiac polls taken last month showed Clinton beating Bush in Florida 44% to 43% and beating Paul in Pennsylvania 54% to 34%.
In Ohio, Clinton leads all prospective Republican challengers, but by margins that have substantially shrunk since a similar poll was taken last month.
With News Wire Services
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