PRESUMED 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL candidate Hillary Clinton has attempted to quell growing criticism of her past email habits.
Clinton came under fire recently after it emerged she had used a personal email account for the duration of her four years as Secretary of State.
Since the revelation, the White House has said that using a personal email for government business may be illegal. Clinton may have breached the Federal Records Act, which calls for official correspondence to be retained.
In a statement, Clinton’s office admitted that she did not keep 31,830 of the 62,320 emails she sent and received while serving as Barack Obama’s Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
In her first public comments since the controversy erupted last week, Clinton said she exclusively used a personal email account as a “matter of convenience,” and insisted the private server she used suffered no security breaches.
She also said “no classified material” was divulged in the emails, while promising she had turned over all work communications to the State Department.
Clinton said the deleted emails were of a personal nature, including information about her daughter Chelsea’s wedding plans, and “yoga routines”.
The former US First Lady said the Clinton family server on which all her emails were stored would not be turned over to the government or an independent commission.
Clinton said she had taken “unprecedented” steps to comply with the law requiring official records be kept.
She added that “looking back, it might have been smarter” to use two separate phones and email accounts.
I thought one device would be simpler, and obviously it hasn’t worked out that way.
Following a State Department request to her and previous secretaries of state, Clinton has turned over some 55,000 pages of emails.
Damaging to her campaign?
Political opponents have seized on the controversy, with Republican Senator Rand Paul, himself a potential 2016 presidential candidate, telling AFP the revelations would make a campaign “very difficult for her”.
I think the trust factor is going to be difficult for her, because if we didn’t trust her the first time, how are we going to trust her the second time?
As all of this rumbles on, it has emerged that Clinton’s husband, former US President Bill, doesn’t actually use email.
His spokesman Matt McKenna told the Wall Street Journal Bill has sent a grand total of two emails during his entire life, both as president.
His first email was a message to John Glenn, the former senator and astronaut – who was making a return trip to space in 1998.
The then president wrote: “Hillary and I had a great time at the launch … We are very proud of you and the entire crew, and a little jealous.”
His other email was to US troops serving in the Adriatic. Later, the laptop he used was sold for some $60,000.
Additional reporting: AFP
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