Hillary Clinton personal e-mail: big deal or business as usual?
| Washington
As Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton used a personal e-mail account to send and receive official communications. All of them 鈥� she apparently never had a government email address, according to The New York Times, which Monday night.
This appears to have been a conscious choice on her part. She or someone working for her created a 鈥渃lintonemail.com鈥� domain on Jan. 13, 2009, according to Philip Bump of . That鈥檚 the day her confirmation hearings began in the Senate. It鈥檚 one week before Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States.
Is this a big deal? Clintonworld argues that there鈥檚 nothing to see here and the media should just move along. Previous secretaries of State used their own e-mail addresses for government work, said Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill. When Secretary of State Clinton emailed other US officials at their government addresses, she fully expected those missives to be saved.
When the State Department last year began asking former secretaries for help in retrieving and archiving electronic records, Clinton readily agreed to help, said Mr. Merrill.
鈥淏oth the letter and the spirit of the rules permitted State Department officials to use non-government email, as long as appropriate records were preserved,鈥� the Clinton spokesman said.
鈥淟etter and spirit of the rules?鈥� Um, maybe not. Prior to Clinton, no secretary of State used a personal e-mail exclusively. As the Times story notes, many current and former National Archives officials reacted to news of the Clinton account with alarm.
At the least, the action may have violated National Archives rules that government e-mails sent from personal accounts be preserved for the historical record. It鈥檚 true that Clinton has cooperated with requests for information, but only she and her aides know whether they鈥檙e holding anything back. As far as the Freedom of Information Act is concerned, her e-mails might as well be a black hole.
That鈥檚 caused much of the punditocracy to judge Clinton鈥檚 email account as a very big deal, indeed. Many on the right are furious, saying the former secretary of State may well be concealing e-mails that bear on the killing of US officials in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. (The ongoing House investigation into Benghazi discovered the Clinton e-mail issue when staffers asked for relevant government e-mail traffic.)
鈥淐learly, Hillary had contempt for the mechanisms that provide transparency and accountability for government operations and officials,鈥� Hot Air鈥檚 Ed Morrissey.
But they鈥檙e not alone. There鈥檚 face-palming on the left as well. David Corn of Mother Jones tweeted, 鈥淭he HRC email mess at State is a fiasco. Profoundly dumb move on her part & her aides. Confirms worst suspicions about her.鈥�
The mainstream media is similarly dumbstruck at the implications. Clinton鈥檚 personal account was bound to be discovered at some point. Now the revelation has given the House Benghazi probe, headed by former federal prosecutor Rep. Trey Gowdy (R) of South Carolina, a large win.
The revelation calls into question the conventional political wisdom that Clinton has been through so many ideological wars that all the negative stuff about her is already public. Does the Republican opposition research machine have more news it鈥檚 just waiting to release?
鈥淗illary email story feeds the narrative that the Clintons have things to hide and are willing to skirt the rules,鈥� tweets NBC senior political editor Mark Murray.
听.
