Funny and surprising as it may sound, Hillary Rodham Clinton, former United States Secretary of State, U.S used her private email account to carry out all her confidential work at the State Department. As a result she has violated all federal requirements of officials’ correspondence to be retained as part of the agency’s record.
People took a back when they found out that Mrs. Clinton never had an official email account during her entire tenure of 4 years. No actions were made to preserve her emails on the department servers.
Just a couple of months ago, to provide the department with earlier records, Mrs Clinton’s advisers had to check thousands of emails to decide which ones to turn over to the State Department.
Her use of personal email was alarming to current and former National Archives and Records Administration officials and government watchdogs as it is serious breach according to them.
“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,” said Jason R. Baron, a lawyer at Drinker Biddle and Reath, former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration.
Mrs. Clinton’s spokesperson said that she has been complying with the “letter and spirit of the rules.”
Under federal law, all emails received and sent by federal officers are regarded as department’s records.
