Holding her first news conference since leaving her administration
post two years ago, Clinton conceded she wished she had used a
government email address as secretary of state but said she violated
no rules and did not send classified material through the private
account.
Clinton, the presumed front-runner for the 2016 Democratic
presidential nomination, has come under fire for using an email
server from her New York-area home and a personal account as the top
U.S. diplomat. Critics raised concerns that the arrangement allowed
her to hide important facts about her tenure and put her
correspondence at a security risk.
"I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was
allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be
easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal
emails instead of two," a self-assured Clinton told more than 200
reporters crowded into a U.N. corridor.
"Looking back, it would've been better if I'd simply used a second
email account and carried a second phone."
It is not unusual for officials in Washington to have two mobile
devices.
Clinton said she had provided all her emails that were work-related
to the State Department and did not keep personal emails on subjects
such as yoga routines, her mother's funeral arrangements or her
daughter's wedding plans.
But she also said the private server contained communications from
her and her husband, an apparent contradiction to her statement that
emails had been deleted.
The prospect of numerous email deletions and her argument of
"convenience" gave more fodder to Republican critics who accused her
of continuing secretive practices that they say characterized the
Clinton family and President Bill Clinton's eight years in office.
Many Democrats welcomed Clinton's move to quell the controversy but
some said her remarks still left questions.
“I think she handled it well, but I do have to question: I have two
email accounts and I only have one device," said Democratic donor
Gabor Garai, a lawyer in Boston who raised about $50,000 for
President Barack Obama in 2012.
Clinton's decision to address reporters reflected a calculation
among her advisers that the issue was ballooning into crisis-like
proportions. The story has dominated cable news for days.
“By waiting so long to finally show her face and address it, I think
it just allowed this thing to spiral out of control," said a former
Clinton adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He noted that the crisis revealed Clinton did not have a capable
campaign-in-waiting with a sharp media strategy to counter such
criticism. Speeding up the formal announcement of her run would
allow such infrastructure to be put in place.
[to top of second column] |
"MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS"
The former U.S. senator and first lady insisted she had done nothing
wrong and had complied with all government policies.
Most of her official emails were sent to government addresses, which
were automatically preserved, Clinton said. Her family's server had
not been hacked, and she rejected calls that it be studied by an
independent arbiter.
The State Department said on Tuesday it would post Clinton's emails
on a website after a review that was likely to take several months.
Clinton tried to head off criticism last week by urging the
department to quickly review and release her emails.
Republicans, who have questioned her ethics and transparency, were
not convinced.
Representative Trey Gowdy, a Republican who chairs a congressional
committee looking into the Benghazi, Libya, attacks of 2012, said
she left "more questions than answers" and pledged to call her up to
Capitol Hill for further testimony.
Ari Fleischer, a former spokesman for Republican President George W.
Bush, scoffed at Clinton's explanation for the account.
"Personal convenience? Hah. She did it because she only trusts a few
top aides and wanted total control," he wrote in a tweet.
The White House has said it encourages administration officials to
use government email accounts, though rules on whether personal
email accounts can be used on government-issued devices appeared to
vary among agencies.
Asked about former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's email
practices, a Pentagon spokesman said he carried two Blackberrys
while he was in office, one for personal and one for government
business but may, on occasion, have sent email to or from the wrong
account.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Emily Flitter, Susan Cornwell,
Phil Stewart and Steve Holland; Writing by Jeff Mason; Editing by
Caren Bohan and Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |