NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 8:15 PM
Updated: Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 2:03 AM
The Obama administration failed to rise to Hillary Clinton’s defense Tuesday over her use of personal email while secretary of state — saying employees were instructed to use their official government emails for business.
During a briefing at which he was bombarded with questions about Clinton’s email practices while she served in the administration, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that “very specific guidance has been given to agencies all across the government, which is specifically that employees in the Obama administration should use their official email accounts when they’re conducting official government business.”
He admitted there were situations where personal accounts could be used. In those cases, “it is important for those records to be preserved, consistent with the Federal Records Act.”
Earlier, Clinton aides, as well as outside groups backing her expected presidential run, pushed back hard on a report by The New York Times that Clinton may have violated federal regulations by using a personal email exclusively.
“She had a BlackBerry. She used it prior to state, and like her predecessors she continued to use it when she got to state,” a Clinton aide said Tuesday. “This was not bucking the system; this was in keeping with exactly what former secretaries had done.”
New regulations require officials to use email accounts that can be saved for archives.
Clinton defenders pointed out that as secretary of state, Colin Powell also used a personal email account. Condoleezza Rice rarely used email as secretary of state, but when she did, she used a government account, a spokesman told Business Insider.
Two months ago, complying with new federal record-keeping practices, “nine out of 10” emails Clinton sent were turned over to the State Department, her aide said.
“If she emailed with her daughter about flower arrangements for her wedding, that didn’t go in, but if she emailed one of the 100 State Department officials she regularly corresponded with, state had it in their servers already, and (Clinton’s) office replicated that to ensure it was all there,” the aide said.
Top Clinton aides like Huma Abedin and Philippe Reines had state.gov email domains and used them, a spokesman said. The liberal group Media Matters, which is backing a Clinton run, argued the law overseeing retention of private emails was not changed until after Clinton’s tenure at the State Department.
But government watchdog groups said conducting public business through personal email was nonetheless deeply troubling.
“A Wild West of weakly regulated email practice was actually a lot worse than we thought,” said John Wonderlich, policy director of the Sunlight Foundation. “I have a hard time seeing a justifiable incentive to building a private system.”
Wonderlich also called it problematic that in deciding which emails to turn over to the State Department, it is “the people who report to Clinton that are making the call about what records to preserve.”
AFP/AFP/Getty Images 'She had a BlackBerry. She used it prior to state, and like her predecessors she continued to use it when she got to state,' a Clinton aide said Tuesday.
New regulations require officials to use email accounts that can be saved for archives.
Previous Next
Enlarge
Stories about the emails were a cloud hanging over Clinton’s highly anticipated speech Tuesday night at a 30th anniversary gala for the pro-women group Emily’s List in Washington. But she chose to ignore the matter and didn’t address it at all at the event.
It was her second public speech in two weeks, a reemergence in the public sphere after a long period off the radar.
Creating another headache for Clinton, the House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi — in which four Americans died — plans to review the issue as well, its chairman, Trey Gowdy, told CNN.
Supporters said the story spelled trouble if she did break the rules.
“This could look like the old Hillary: secretive, doesn’t trust anybody, doesn’t play by the rules,” said a longtime Clinton confidant. And even if she abided by State Department protocols, “the Republicans are still going to use this to say, what is she hiding, what did she have on there that was deleted? From that point of view, it’s hurtful.”
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1M4AoXY
0 comments:
Post a Comment