Clinton Responds to State Department Report Criticizing Private Email Use

Earlier this week, the State Department Inspector General released the findings of their investigation into the state of department email security, including Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. The report is critical of Clinton's decision to exclusively use a private email address and not one that was government issues. The report said that Clinton did not seek approval before using an alternate email address, and the Inspector General said that she did not follow proper procedures in turning over all work related email before leaving the State Department. All emails have since been turned over.

The report is also critical of the State Department admitting that the current policies for record preservation are outdated and the technology is outdated as well. The report mentions former Secretaries of State that used private email addresses and failed to turn over any work related content. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell also used a personal email address to conduct government business, but he has stated that he is unable to turn over records because they no longer exist. While Clinton is not the first Secretary of State to use a private email address to conduct business, she is the first to exclusively use a private server.

Clinton and team immediately responded, and she spoke to several news outlets by phone to address the report. Clinton spoke with reporters from Univision, ABC, MSNBC, and CNN, all of which asked a number of questions surrounding the report and its findings. Clinton, once again, admitted that using a private email server was a mistake, but she quickly turned the conversation to the election and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Speaking with Chuck Todd on MSNBC's Meet the Press Daily, she said, "I said this many times, it was still a mistake. If I could go back, I would do it differently. And I understand people have concerns about this, but I hope and expect voters to look at the full picture of everything I've done and stand for. And the full threat posed by Donald Trump. If they do, I have faith in the American people that they will make the right choice."

The State Department's review is the first report regarding her emails to be released. A report from the FBI is expected to be released sometime this summer. A full copy of the State Department's report can be read HERE. Clinton has said on several occasions that she wants the emails from her private server available to the public in the interest of transparency. The State Department released the final batch of emails at the end of February. Since the release of the emails was part of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), all the emails were posted to the State Department’s FOIA website. To access the emails, follow the steps below:

1. Go to http://foia.state.gov/Search
2. Type “F-2014-20439” in the Case Number field
3. Click on the arrow next to the “Posted Date” column header and select “Sort Descending” so that the recently released documents show first
4. Click the title of the document in the “Subject” field to open a PDF copy