I don't see any way this doesn't look bad-even if she turns over everything and she had nothing but the best reasons for using a personal email account exclusively (doubtful) there'll always be the suspicion that she was holding something back.
Just imagine if Clinton commingled public funds with her personal bank account...
When she started using her personal email for official purposes, she waived any claims to privacy over the contents of through that account. They should all be released, public and personal.
I can't imagine the NSA not having something worth blackmailing her on by now - or that they could possibly dig up more mud on her than the Republicans are planning to sling anyway.
Just read up on what Bill has done and who he's been associated with since he left office: they hardly need the NSA when there's so much out in the public eye.
While I don't enjoy this fact much, I can't help but vehemently dislike the author's clear bias here.
Stuff like this doesn't just pop out of nowhere. It's very clear this is the start of a campaign against Hillary; heck, they even went so far to talk about how Jeb, the leading GOP candidate, released a "trove" of emails during his 8 years as Governor. What they failed to really dive into, however, is how State reps have been doing this for a while. They mention it in a single sentence and then immediately go onto the next thing.
Yeah, the comments are disappointing; every single one is about her election campaign.
I'm much more interested in how the Secretary of State fails to get a government email address. I've seen plenty of less-than-competent IT departments manage to make sure every last contractor and network printer has an email address.
If this is some sort of action by Hillary thinking the rules don't apply to her, or her being irresponsible with national security, or something, there ought to be a record of her declining to set up an email. It seems like the real national security risk is that the onboarding process for US Secretaries of State doesn't involve getting them an email address as a matter of course. Who else doesn't get emails?
Why do you take it as a given that the Secretary of State should have an email address? If anything it seems like a vulnerability. At that level of politics, the actors are not concerned over trivialities like email. So why not avoid the risk all together?
> Mrs. Clinton is not the first government official — or first secretary of state — to use a personal email account on which to conduct official business. But her exclusive use of her private email, for all of her work, appears unusual, Mr. Baron said. The use of private email accounts is supposed to be limited to emergencies, experts said, such as when an agency’s computer server is not working.
> “I can recall no instance in my time at the National Archives when a high-ranking official at an executive branch agency solely used a personal email account for the transaction of government business,” said Mr. Baron, who worked at the agency from 2000 to 2013.
and
> Mr. Merrill said that because Mrs. Clinton had been sending emails to other State Department officials at their government accounts, she had “every expectation they would be retained.”
and
> Mrs. Clinton’s successor, Secretary of State John Kerry, has used a government email account since taking over the role
If there were some sort of intent behind not using email, first, she wouldn't have used personal email, and second, I'd expect the article to mention that.
Stuff like this doesn't just pop out of nowhere. It's very clear this is the start of a campaign against Hillary
True, but isn't this Obama's leak? He surely was sending e-mails to his Secretary of state at the @phony adress.
What is disturbing is that both Patreaus and Hillary have been done in by stupid use of e-mail. Two people POTUS dislikes and have (had) clear presidential caliber and ambition.
Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to have operated in violation of what the White House said Tuesday was “very specific guidance” that members of the Obama administration use government e-mail accounts to carry out official business.
It's very clear that Hillary herself is starting a campaign for president, and therefore the press is digging as hard as they can to find new stories about her. You see similar digging around other potential candidates; see this article on Jeb Bush for example:
A reporter who writes something bad about a politician is not necessarily biased. It is the job of reporters to write bad things about politicians, if the bad things are true.
It's sad and surprising how often this pattern seems to repeat itself. For another example (that's probably not well-known outside Wisconsin), Scott Walker set up a private server in the Milwaukee County office for his internal communication with staff, likely at least in part to shield himself from scrutiny as his county staff did work for his campaign for the governorship:
The security implications of the US Secretary of State using an un-secure email seem far more problematic.
We may very well find out that the US security services were complicit in the Clinton arrangement. It would truly be absurd for a modern diplomat to be using insecure communications when things like (war, life, death) etc are the subject of the communiques.
Clearly the entire POTUS/administration infrastructure was sending her e-mails, so it seems to beggar belief that the system was not vetted by the secret service and the NSA.
On the other hand, the internal politics of mid-level burecrats in the state house are on a whole nother level of banality. The record keeping is certainly an issue, but its really an apples and banannas comparison.
Certainly, when it happens on the federal level it is of higher significance. It remains to be seen, if after scrutiny, Clinton engaged in official misdeeds by keeping her official communications private, but from the article it appears there are serious questions that need to be answered.
But that doesn't diminish my point. Scott Walker is a front-runner for the presidency, and by any reasonable account intentionally created an alternate IT system to bypass open records laws. Likewise, the Bush administration used a similar system hosted by the RNC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controve...) for the same purpose. We should demand that all public servants operate in a manner accessible to public scrutiny, not just the party we personally tend to vote against.
Why is this not a bigger deal? She's obviously concealing information from the records, keeping full control of her communications that way. No person so high up would go so far to avoid record keeping without having something very important to hide.
I haven't seen this mentioned here, but the domain that she apparently used `clintonemail.com` was registered the same day her confirmation hearings started.
This most likely means that whatever she intended to do with it was premeditated. It wasn't like one day, in the middle of the Benghazi debacle, she decided to start using private email to cover her tracks.
Someone advised her to do it, for sure. I don't think you have to be so cynical as to believe that she was planning on doing something illegal, she just is smart enough (and I guess unethical) to know that anything that can't be dug up in a public records, FOIA or subpoena can't be used against her, politically or legally.
27 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 192 ms ] threadWhen she started using her personal email for official purposes, she waived any claims to privacy over the contents of through that account. They should all be released, public and personal.
Stuff like this doesn't just pop out of nowhere. It's very clear this is the start of a campaign against Hillary; heck, they even went so far to talk about how Jeb, the leading GOP candidate, released a "trove" of emails during his 8 years as Governor. What they failed to really dive into, however, is how State reps have been doing this for a while. They mention it in a single sentence and then immediately go onto the next thing.
I'm much more interested in how the Secretary of State fails to get a government email address. I've seen plenty of less-than-competent IT departments manage to make sure every last contractor and network printer has an email address.
If this is some sort of action by Hillary thinking the rules don't apply to her, or her being irresponsible with national security, or something, there ought to be a record of her declining to set up an email. It seems like the real national security risk is that the onboarding process for US Secretaries of State doesn't involve getting them an email address as a matter of course. Who else doesn't get emails?
> Mrs. Clinton is not the first government official — or first secretary of state — to use a personal email account on which to conduct official business. But her exclusive use of her private email, for all of her work, appears unusual, Mr. Baron said. The use of private email accounts is supposed to be limited to emergencies, experts said, such as when an agency’s computer server is not working.
> “I can recall no instance in my time at the National Archives when a high-ranking official at an executive branch agency solely used a personal email account for the transaction of government business,” said Mr. Baron, who worked at the agency from 2000 to 2013.
and
> Mr. Merrill said that because Mrs. Clinton had been sending emails to other State Department officials at their government accounts, she had “every expectation they would be retained.”
and
> Mrs. Clinton’s successor, Secretary of State John Kerry, has used a government email account since taking over the role
If there were some sort of intent behind not using email, first, she wouldn't have used personal email, and second, I'd expect the article to mention that.
True, but isn't this Obama's leak? He surely was sending e-mails to his Secretary of state at the @phony adress.
What is disturbing is that both Patreaus and Hillary have been done in by stupid use of e-mail. Two people POTUS dislikes and have (had) clear presidential caliber and ambition.
This is not a good sign for democracy in America.
Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to have operated in violation of what the White House said Tuesday was “very specific guidance” that members of the Obama administration use government e-mail accounts to carry out official business.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/documents-show-the-ex...
A reporter who writes something bad about a politician is not necessarily biased. It is the job of reporters to write bad things about politicians, if the bad things are true.
- http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/court-set-to-rele...
- http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/former-...
We may very well find out that the US security services were complicit in the Clinton arrangement. It would truly be absurd for a modern diplomat to be using insecure communications when things like (war, life, death) etc are the subject of the communiques.
Clearly the entire POTUS/administration infrastructure was sending her e-mails, so it seems to beggar belief that the system was not vetted by the secret service and the NSA.
On the other hand, the internal politics of mid-level burecrats in the state house are on a whole nother level of banality. The record keeping is certainly an issue, but its really an apples and banannas comparison.
But that doesn't diminish my point. Scott Walker is a front-runner for the presidency, and by any reasonable account intentionally created an alternate IT system to bypass open records laws. Likewise, the Bush administration used a similar system hosted by the RNC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controve...) for the same purpose. We should demand that all public servants operate in a manner accessible to public scrutiny, not just the party we personally tend to vote against.
I don't think those are inherently partisan issues.
This most likely means that whatever she intended to do with it was premeditated. It wasn't like one day, in the middle of the Benghazi debacle, she decided to start using private email to cover her tracks.
Also, if anyone wants to impersonate the current Sec of State... kerryemail.com is available.