The correspondence with General David Petraeus, who was commander
of U.S. Central Command at the time, started shortly before she
entered office and continued during her first days as the top U.S.
diplomat in January and February of 2009.
The Defense Department provided the emails to the State Department
in "the last several days," State Department spokesman John Kirby
said in a statement.
The exchange of 10 or so emails, the existence of which were first
reported by the Associated Press on Friday, largely dealt with
personnel issues, according to the State Department.
Clinton's use of a private email account connected to a server in
her home instead of a government-issued email address came to light
in March.
News of the previously undisclosed email thread only adds to a
steady stream of revelations about the emails in the past six
months, which have forced Clinton to revise her account of the setup
which she first gave in March.
Nearly a third of all Democrats and 58 percent of all voters think
Clinton is lying about her handling of her emails, according to a
Fox News poll released this week.
The email arrangement has drawn criticism from political opponents
who accused the Democratic presidential front-runner of sidestepping
transparency and record-keeping laws and of potentially exposing
classified information to hackers.
The controversy has cut into Clinton's lead in the race for the
Democratic nomination for the November 2016 election.
Jamal Ware, spokesman for the House Select Committee on Benghazi,
which wants all Clinton emails concerning the 2012 attack that
killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, said the committee would
not have a detailed comment until it had received and reviewed the
emails.
"If indeed this is a sign the stonewalling and political protection
effort that was previously being run by the (State) Department is
diminishing, the committee welcomes it," he said. "The proof will be
in the production."
Clinton apologized this month for her email setup, saying it was
unwise. But as recently as Sunday, she told CBS when asked about her
emails that she provided "all of them."
Last December, she provided what she said were copies of all 30,000
or so work emails she had in her possession, nearly two years after
she stepped down as secretary of state.
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She did not hand over another 30,000 emails from the period that she
deemed personal and said she chose "not to keep."
The emails with Petraeus also appear to contradict the claim by
Clinton's campaign that she used a private BlackBerry email account
for her first two months at the department before setting up her
clintonemail.com account in March 2009. This was the reason her
campaign gave for not handing over any emails from those two months
to the State Department.
The Petraeus exchange shows she started using the clintonemail.com
account by January 2009, according to the State Department.
Clinton's spokesmen, who did not respond to questions, have
acknowledged that other work emails from later in her tenure were
also missing from the record Clinton handed over. They have declined
to say why.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now examining Clinton's
server as it looks into the possible mishandling of classified
information between Clinton and her staff.
Media outlets, including the Associated Press, and several other
groups have filed dozens of lawsuits under freedom of information
laws seeking Clinton's email records.
(Reporting by Washington newsroom and Jonathan Allen in New York;
Additional reporting by Yeganeh June Torbati in Washington and Mark
Hosenball in Zurich; Editing by Sandra Maler, Lisa Lambert, David
Gregorio and Alan Crosby)
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