The House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi has discovered that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have violated federal law by exclusively using her personal email address to conduct government business.
The committee found Clinton, the likely 2016 Democrat presidential nominee, never had an official government email address for her entire tenure as secretary of state, the New York Times reported Monday.
More damning is that her staff made no effort to archive her emails on the agency’s servers in violation of the Federal Records Act.
Hacked emails indicate that Clinton used a domain registered the day of her Senate hearings. http://t.co/ZsdTXKQIkS pic.twitter.com/1TlYjrcZ52
— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) March 3, 2015
The Washington Post added to the story Monday when it reported the email address Clinton seemed to be using at the domain “clintonemail.com” was registered on January 13, 2009.
That’s the day Senate confirmation hearings for the Secretary of State position began.
“It is very difficult to conceive of a scenario — short of nuclear winter — where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business,” Jason R. Baron, a lawyer and former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, told the Times.
“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,” he added.
The National Archives and Records Administration regulations required that all emails from Clinton’s personal account be maintained in the agency’s registry, which her staff failed to do.
“It’s a shame it didn’t take place automatically when she was secretary of state as it should have,” said Thomas S. Blanton, the director of National Security Archive. “Someone in the State Department deserves credit for taking the initiative to ask for the records back. Most of the time it takes the threat of litigation and embarrassment.”
According to Blanton, historical archiving is not the only reason top government officials shouldn’t use personal email accounts for official business.
“Personal emails are not secure,” he told the Times.
As the scandals continue to pile up on Clinton, her Democratic presidential nomination may not be as sure a thing as once thought.
The Twiterverse slammed the former secretary of state over the latest scandal.
Hillary Clinton and Lois Lerner sitting in a tree. Government emails are M I S S I N G.
— Justen Charters (@JustenCharters) March 3, 2015
@GPollowitz @mitchellreports @nytimes They aren’t illegal emails. The term is “undocumented”
— Christopher C Horner (@Chris_C_Horner) March 3, 2015
Perhaps they are emails in waiting?
President Hillary will send all messages via Snapchat.
— jon gabriel (@exjon) March 3, 2015
But it’s cool. Hillary has turned over copies of all her private emails. And you can be sure it’s all of them because pinky swear.
— Matt Apuzzo (@mattapuzzo) March 3, 2015
@BiasedGirl Per the article, Hillary’s aides “sorted through” the emails before turning *some* over. Good luck finding the rest.
— Phineas Fahrquar (@irishspy) March 3, 2015
guessing Bill and Hillary didn’t have one of those husband-and-wife AOL addresses
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) March 3, 2015
Remember when a certain Alaskan Governor used personal email and it was a huge scandal?
— RB (@RBPundit) March 3, 2015
KEY WORD: ILLEGALLY > @HillaryClinton illegally used a private email account, reports Times http://t.co/ZEBB55hiTz
— ROCKWITHBECK (@ROCKWITHBECK) March 3, 2015
I believe it was.
Oh Hillary, I think it does… pic.twitter.com/SsBIacLDFg
— The Truth Monkey (@TheTruthMonkey) March 3, 2015
Hi @HillaryClinton : you’re nowhere to be found on social media tonight. You must be busy emailing foreign donors from your private email.
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) March 3, 2015
So that’s where she is?
E-mails with Hillary -> pic.twitter.com/VY9FwKHfwJ
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 3, 2015
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