海角大神

Last week, we learned for seemingly the first time that, while she was secretary of State from 2009 through the beginning of 2013,聽聽that was set up on a server that was kept in her home rather than an official State Department e-mail account. Rather than going away like a one-day story, the story has percolated in the political media thanks in no small part to the fact that new revelations and questions seemed to be coming out every day while the White House and State Department both seemed to be rather ham-handed in their response to questions about how it came about the Clinton was allowed to do this back in 2009, what kind of security was involved, who had control over the server itself, and whether or not Hillary Clinton had ever communicated with the president or other White House personnel using her personal e-mail account. Through it all, though, there was almost no response from Hillary Clinton outside of a single tweet when the story first broke. Obviously, her advisers had hoped the story would die out on its own, but it became apparent by the time the new week began that this wasn鈥檛 the case so, on Tuesday,聽, but her statements created as many questions as they answered:

Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday defended her exclusive use of a private email address during her time as secretary of state as a matter of 鈥渃onvenience,鈥� saying that about 30,000 of her work-related emails would be made public, but that thousands more that she deemed personal had been deleted.

鈥淚 thought using one device would be simpler; obviously, it hasn鈥檛 worked out that way,鈥� she said in her first public comments since the issue emerged last week.

She said that most of her emails were work-related, went to government employees and were captured on government servers. Mrs. Clinton said that the State Department would make public all of her work-related emails, but that her personal email 鈥� about issues such as her daughter鈥檚 wedding and the death of her mother 鈥� would remain private.

鈥淚 feel that I have taken unprecedented steps to provide these public emails; they will be in the public domain,鈥� she said.

Mrs. Clinton spoke for about 20 minutes during a news conference, delivering a statement on women鈥檚 issues and denouncing moves by Republican lawmakers to undermine efforts for a nuclear agreement with Iran, before turning to the controversy over her emails.

Expressing a mix of regret and defensiveness over the matter, Mrs. Clinton emphasized that she broke no laws. 鈥淚 fully complied with every rule,鈥� she said, adding that no classified material had been sent on her email.

However, she remained steadfast that she would not turn over personal emails and said that those messages in fact had been deleted.

鈥淭hey were about personal and private matters that I believed were in the scope of my personal privacy and particularly that of other people,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey had nothing to do with work. I didn鈥檛 see a need to keep them.鈥�

The State Department said on Tuesday that it would publish online the full set of emails provided by Mrs. Clinton from her time as secretary of state.

鈥淲e will review the entire 55,000-page set and release in one batch at the end of that review to ensure that standards are consistently applied throughout the entire 55,000 pages,鈥� said Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman. 鈥淲e said we expect the review to take several months; obviously that hasn鈥檛 changed.鈥�

A smaller set, about 300 emails that had been provided to the select House committee on Benghazi, will be released earlier to the public.

The State Department also said it would give any reasons for redactions, in accordance with Freedom of Information Act guidelines.

聽has more:

Hillary Rodham Clinton鈥檚 2016 presidential campaign began on terms set by her adversaries 鈥� with a defensive Clinton telling reporters she won鈥檛 release half of the emails sent from a controversial private email account set up while she was Secretary of State and suggesting that they may not exist anymore.

Clinton, with the poise and clarity of a mid-campaign politician, said her decision to send departmental emails through a private email server at her suburban New York house was a matter of 鈥渃onvenience,鈥� and that she regretted not keeping parallel government and private accounts.

鈥淚 did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,鈥� she said when asked if any of her emails compromised security. 鈥淟ooking back, it might have been smarter鈥� to have used government email, she conceded.

At times, the former first lady, who answered about ten questions, seemed to contradict herself, saying at one point that she had destroyed her personal emails, then suggesting they remained 鈥� off limits 鈥� on her family鈥檚 private server.

Clinton said her lawyers had examined all of her emails, about 60,000 in all over four years at Foggy Bottom, and sent every government-related missive 鈥� about 30,000 鈥� to the State Department in the hopes that all would be released to the public on the Web.

Yet in an act of defiance certain to stoke a new round of questioning, Clinton said she had no intention of turning over any of the approximately 30,000 emails she deemed 鈥減ersonal鈥� for the sake of her family鈥檚 鈥減rivacy鈥� 鈥� exchanges she said included planning for daughter Chelsea鈥檚 wedding and her mother鈥檚 funeral, correspondence with her husband and her yoga schedule.

鈥淕oing through the emails, there were over 60,000 in total, sent and received. About half were work-related and went to the State Department, and about half were personal,鈥� said Clinton. 鈥淚 had no reason to save them, but that was my decision.

鈥淔or any government employee, it is that government employee鈥檚 responsibility to determine what is personal and what is work-related.鈥�

When a reporter asked her if she planned to allow an independent commission to examine all of the emails on her personal server, she responded with a flat 鈥� no way.

鈥淭he server contains personal communications from my husband and me,鈥� Clinton said of the system, which was originally set up to handle Bill Clinton鈥檚 post-presidential correspondence. 鈥淎nd the server will remain private.鈥�

No one, not even Clinton鈥檚 most erstwhile defenders, thought the press conference would end the firestorm over the emails. 鈥淟ook, the problem here isn鈥檛 about the emails, you guys are never going to be satisfied with whatever answers she gives,鈥� said former Bill Clinton adviser James Carville. 鈥淵鈥檃ll are just going to go out there and say, 鈥楽he raised more questions than she answered.'鈥�

Today鈥檚 event at the United Nations was an exercise in a hastily-organized crisis management 鈥� staged a few feet away from a copy of Picasso鈥檚 Guernica, a gruesome depiction of raw human suffering during the Spanish Civil War. It featured none of the genteel stagecraft and personal dignity Clinton as a politician and private citizen craves 鈥� a push-and-shove tabloid press scrum in front of 25 TV cameras 鈥� more 鈥淏onfire of the Vanities鈥� than 鈥淲oman of the Year.鈥�

Clinton鈥檚 staff says the time had come to defend herself after taking a week鈥檚 worth of incoming fire, but it came at a staggering opportunity cost 鈥� the chance to defining the aspirational terms of her candidacy to come, a campaign which will be based on her role as a gender pioneer and desire to articulate a post-Obama vision for saving the middle class.

Completely lost in the noise was the speech Clinton delivered Tuesday, which was intended to underscore the rhetorical highlight of her four-decade career in politics, her 1996 speech in Beijing declaring women鈥檚 rights identical to human rights.

鈥淪he鈥檚 taking a huge risk here,鈥� said a longtime adviser, as Clinton prepared to take questions. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think she has a choice, but things could go wrong.鈥�

Near the top of the press conference, after she had made statements regarding the speech she had just given at a United Nations forum and comments about the letter sent by Senate Republicans regarding the negotiations over Iran鈥檚 nuclear program, Clinton answered the question that everyone had been wondering about from the beginning; namely, why she chose to set up a private e-mail account for official business. Her explanation, that it was a matter of 鈥渃onvenience鈥� because she didn鈥檛 want to carry around two mobile devices, is one that many people have expressed skepticism about. After all, as anyone who owns a current model iPhone, Android, or Blackberry smartphone can tell you, it most certainly is possible to have more than one e-mail account on a mobile device at one time. I鈥檝e had a setup like that from the first time I owned a smartphone, which roughly dates back to the time when Clinton first became secretary of State.聽聽brings up, as others have since the press conference ended, the possibility that the phone Clinton was using, which was apparently a Blackberry, didn鈥檛 allow two accounts at the same time. However, it鈥檚 worth noting that, at the same time that Clinton was secretary of State,聽聽At the very least, then, Clinton鈥檚 claim that the decision to use a personal mobile device and an e-mail server that she and her husband had personal control over rather than a government device and an e-mail account tied in to government e-mail servers was purely a matter of 鈥渃onvenience鈥� just doesn鈥檛 withstand the credibility test.

Clinton also says that she and her advisers reviewed all of the e-mails on her personal account and turned over anything that was work-related to the State Department, that at least some portion of what she considered to be her 鈥減ersonal鈥� e-mail was deleted, and that she would neither be turning over the personal e-mail for review nor the server for any kind of forensic examination. In other words, she鈥檚 asking the press and the American public to trust her, and only her, to make the determination of what is work-related and what is personal. Obviously, this would not have been an issue at all had she used a separate, government-provided, e-mail account for official business to begin with, but once she started commingling the two, it strikes me that there must be something more involved in the review process beyond 鈥渢rust me.鈥�

Finally, Clinton鈥檚 response today did nothing to answer the questions regarding the security issues that seem rather self-evident here. Just how secure was this private server that Clinton utilized, for example? She said today that the server had been set up when her husband left office and that it was 鈥済uarded鈥� by the Secret Service, but that doesn鈥檛 really answer potential concerns about hacking, which has nothing to do with the physical security of the server. It鈥檚 also unclear whether regular backups were made of the server, and who has control over those backups, and whether or not encryption was used in her communications with State Department and other government employees. It鈥檚 also unclear at the moment whether she ever used this personal e-mail account to communicate with representatives of foreign nations, which would raise security issues all its own.

If Hillary Clinton鈥檚 intention in Tuesday鈥檚 press conference was to try to put this story to an end, then I would say that she failed miserably in that regard. At least for the moment, this story is not going away.

Doug Mataconis appears on the Outside the Beltway blog at http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/.