Former Secretary Clinton talks about her state.gov private emails

March 11, 2015 By in Govt Documents, Hillary Clinton, Huh? News, Leadership and Management, Legacy, Lessons, Privacy, Regulations, Secretary of State, Spectacular, State Department, Technology and Work, Top Ranks, Transparency, Trends, Where Are They Now? Tags: , , , 2 Comments

Posted: 01:11 am  EDT
[twitter-follow screen_name=’Diplopundit’ ]

 

Excerpt from the transcript of Hillary Clinton’s remarks on the email controversy swirling about via Time’s @ZekeJMiller:

There are four things I want the public to know.

First, when I got to work as secretary of state, I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two.

Looking back, it would’ve been better if I’d simply used a second email account and carried a second phone, but at the time, this didn’t seem like an issue.

Second, the vast majority of my work emails went to government employees at their government addresses, which meant they were captured and preserved immediately on the system at the State Department.

Third, after I left office, the State Department asked former secretaries of state for our assistance in providing copies of work- related emails from our personal accounts. I responded right away and provided all my emails that could possibly be work-related, which totalled roughly 55,000 printed pages, even though I knew that the State Department already had the vast majority of them. We went through a thorough process to identify all of my work- related emails and deliver them to the State Department. At the end, I chose not to keep my private personal emails — emails about planning Chelsea’s wedding or my mother’s funeral arrangements, condolence notes to friends as well as yoga routines, family vacations, the other things you typically find in inboxes.

No one wants their personal emails made public, and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy.

Fourth, I took the unprecedented step of asking that the State Department make all my work-related emails public for everyone to see.

I am very proud of the work that I and my colleagues and our public servants at the department did during my four years as secretary of state, and I look forward to people being able to see that for themselves.

Again, looking back, it would’ve been better for me to use two separate phones and two email accounts. I thought using one device would be simpler, and obviously, it hasn’t worked out that way.

 

The Clinton folks have also released a Q&A on her email use:

 

.

.

So if we tell over 70,000 employees that they should secure their email accounts and “avoid conducting official Department business from your personal email accounts,” then we go off and use our own private non-government email, what leadership message are we sending out to the troops?  Follow what I say not what I do?

.

The secretary of state is the highest classifying authority at the State Department. Since she did not have a state.gov account, does this mean, she never sent/receive any classified material via email in the entirety of her tenure at the State Department? If so, was there a specific person who routinely checked classified email and cable traffic intended for the secretary of state?

.

The podium heads insist that there is no restriction in use of private emails. Never mind that this is exclusive use of private emails. If a junior diplomat or IT specialist sets-up his/her own email server to conduct government business at the home backyard shed in Northern Virginia, do you think Diplomatic Security would not be after him or her? Would he/she even gets tenured by the Tenuring Board despite systems management practices contrary to published guidelines?  If the answer is “yes,” we’d really like to know how this works. For ordinary people.

And then there’s this — if there were a hundred people at State that the then secretary of state regularly sent emails to, was there not a single one who said, “wait a minute’ this might not be such a great idea?

.

Bottomline despite this brouhaha? Her personal email server will remain private. She has full control over what the public get to see. End of story. Or maybe not.

.

Oops, what’s this? Oh, dear.

#

 

2 responses

  1. I wonder if someone will ask her or the State spox if there are any examples of other senior officials (career) who use private e mail as their primary e mail for official business?

    It seems that she is confusing occasional use of private e mail for administrative issues connected with work (you are home sick or dealing with an emergency and use your home e mail to send an email to your office) – a far cry from using private e mail as your primary e mail for your work. For one, most of us have to actually be at the office and using our State computers. While traveling, we use our State assigned blackberries….don’t we?

    It seems that official policy is not enough when it comes to political appointees – they do not have to walk the talk or respect the policies they apply to the agency they lead. As you note. It apparently takes a law to make this happen.

    The other question she did not answer is whether she consulted with anyone at State, and who.

    Bah Humbug!

  2. Pingback: A Line Edit Of Hillary Clinton's Disastrous Email Press Conference