Hillary
Clinton may have broken federal record-keeping laws: NY Times
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[March 03, 2015]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have violated federal records
laws by using a personal email account for all of her work messages, the
New York Times reported on Monday.
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The newspaper said the likely Democratic presidential candidate
conducted all her official business during her four-year tenure at
the State Department on a private email account.
It added that Clinton, who stepped down as secretary of state in
2013, recently handed over 55,000 pages of emails to the State
Department in response to a department effort to comply with
record-keeping practices.
Federal law says letters and emails written and received by federal
officials are government records that must be retained, according to
the paper. Regulations at the time Clinton served as secretary of
state called for emails on personal accounts to be preserved as
well, the paper said.
The Times said most experts believed private email accounts should
only be used for official government business in emergencies,
according to the Times.
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A spokesman for Clinton told the Times that Clinton was complying
with the "letter and spirit of the rules" and had expected her
emails would be retained. He declined to detail why she chose to
conduct business from her personal account, the Times said.
Responding to the report, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf
said the department last year asked former secretaries of state
through their representatives to submit any records in their
possession to improve record-keeping and management.
"In response to our request, Secretary Clinton provided the
department with emails spanning her time at the department," Harf
said in a statement.
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Clinton's spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.
Clinton is widely considered the front-runner for next year's
Democratic presidential nomination if she decides to enter the race.
Her inner circle is currently discussing accelerating the formation
of a campaign organization to April or May instead of waiting until
the summer.
With no definite opponents to the democratic presidential
nomination, Clinton has felt no rush to jump into the race, but
having a campaign team in place would allow her to respond
forcefully to various accusations fired her way.
It would also allow her to raise the millions of dollars needed for
a campaign.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert. Additional reporting by Lesley
Wroughton and Steve Holland.; Editing by Peter Cooney and Nick
Macfie)
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