So wait — Hillary Clinton never got a state.gov email? What does the FAM say?

March 3, 2015 By in Controversies, Diplomatic History, Foreign Affairs, Govt Documents, Hillary Clinton, Huh? News, Secretary of State, Spectacular, State Department, Technology and Work Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Posted: 01:05 EST
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Via NYT—  from Michael S. Schmidt

Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.

Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.

It was only two months ago, in response to a new State Department effort to comply with federal record-keeping practices, that Mrs. Clinton’s advisers reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department. All told, 55,000 pages of emails were given to the department. Mrs. Clinton stepped down from the secretary’s post in early 2013.

Continue reading, Hillary Clinton Used Personal Email at State Dept., Possibly Breaking Rules

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And then this:

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Oops, what’s that?

 

Holy moly sugar and macaroni!

Hey, what happens to State employees who ditch their state.gov emails for hotmail or gmail to conduct government business?

Let’s see —

5 FAM 443.1 Principles Governing E-Mail Communications:
(TL:IM-19; 10-30-1995) 

a. All Government employees and contractors are required by law to make and  preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency (Federal Records Act, or “FRA,” 44 U.S.C. 3101 et seq). In addition, Federal regulations govern the life cycle of these records: they must be properly stored and preserved, available for retrieval, and subject to appropriate approved disposition schedules.

5 FAM 443.2 Which E-Mail Messages are Records
(TL:IM-19; 10-30-1995) 

a. E-mail messages are records when they meet the definition of records in the Federal Records Act. The definition states that documentary materials are Federal records when they:

  • —are made or received by an agency under Federal law or in connection with public business; and
  • —are preserved or are appropriate for preservation as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government, or because of the informational value of the data in them.

[snip]

c. Under FRA regulations (36 CFR 1222.38), principal categories of materials, including E-mail, that are to be preserved are:

  • —records that document the formulation and execution of basic policies and decisions and the taking of necessary actions;
  • —records that document important meetings;
  • —records that facilitate action by agency officials and their successors in office;
  • —records that make possible a proper scrutiny by the Congress or other duly authorized agencies of the Government; and
  • —records that protect the financial, legal, and other rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the Government’s actions.

According to 5 FAM 440, e-mail messages that may constitute Federal records include: (1) E-mail providing key substantive comments on a draft action memorandum, if the E-mail message adds to a proper understanding of the formulation or execution of Department action; (2) E-mail providing documentation of significant Department decisions and commitments reached orally (person to person, by telecommunications, or in conference) and not otherwise documented in Department files;  (3) E-mail conveying information of value on important Department activities, e.g. data on significant programs specially compiled by posts in response to a Department solicitation, if the E-mail message adds to a proper understanding of Department operations and responsibilities.

What else?

The FAM also says that the Department’s Records Management Office (OIS/RA/RD) conducts periodic reviews of the records management practices both at headquarters and at overseas posts. “These reviews ensure proper records creation, maintenance, and disposition by the Department. These periodic reviews now will include monitoring of the implementation of the Department’s E-mail policy.”

Okay, OIS/RA/RD, you’re about to get your 15 minutes of fame.

 

Related item:

5 FAM 440  ELECTRONIC RECORDS, FACSIMILE RECORDS, AND ELECTRONIC MAIL RECORDS 
(CT:IM-158; 12-29-2014) (Office of Origin: A/GIS/IPS)

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2 responses

  1. In this age of blackberries and tablets, nearly everyone has done official business, from time to time, on a non-state account, although doing things exclusively that way seems a bit beyond the pale. Of course, the blinding irony here is that State’s unclassified e-mail system was hacked and as of now is still not secure. Before the Department takes Hillary to the woodshed for violating the rules of e-mal decorum, perhaps it should get its own house in order first.

  2. This raises another question(s) was the contents of these e-mails Sensitive? Classified? PII? The e-mails transited the Internet, were they encrypted? Looks like Information Assurance (IA) was/is dropping the ball
    again. Where was her office ISSO? Another example of the DoS, from the top down doesn’t take cyber security seriously. I could add dozens more examples. Shameful.