As many people know, Hillary Clinton, in addition to people complaining about her role in not getting aid in time to our compound in Benghazi in Libya are also concerned about her emails.
Everyone agrees that regarding the emails, she did nothing illegal. It is a matter of the perception of what she did. It would be illegal now because the law has changed.
Private Server
Clinton used the federal encrypted email system for emails that needed to be secure. But she had her own email system that she used. It was run from a server in her home. It was a private account used exclusively for official business. It did give her more control than normal over access to the emails.
It is not clear why Hillary Clinton chose to set up her own server. It probably gives her more protection from subpoenas but less protection from hackers and viruses than in a data center. The server itself was probably safe because her home is guarded by the Secret Service. Although, it would have been susceptible to fire or flood.
The Scientific American has a nice article on why it isn’t that odd for Hillary Clinton to have her own server. It almost made us want to go out and get our own.
Federal Records Act and Freedom of Information Act
According to the New York Times she used a private email account for official business. This could be a potential problem because the Federal Records Act requires all employees to save emails and other correspondence. So the question they asked was whether this private email account saved all of her work related emails.
The AP has requested the government under the Freedom of Information Act to see the emails but has been waiting a year. The private account first came to public attention because of emails of Sidney Blumenthal’s that were released by a convicted Romanian hacker. Then Trey Gowdy, the Republican leading the investigation into Benghazi became aware of the separate email accounts.
Clinton Calls for Release
Clinton now wants the State Department make available 55,000 pages of emails from the time she was at the Department. She made the statement at a campaign stop in Iowa. Her reason was probably because a judge overruled the State Department. They were going to release them all at one time by January (which seems like a long way away). But the judge says they need to be release as they become available. So there will be constant small releases. This is probably not to Hillary’s liking since it won’t hit the news and then die, but keep the information constantly coming up in the news. But, as she pointed out, it is up to the State Department, Clinton no longer has control over the emails, they are government property.
In some ways, she has made the situation worse. Her statement Tuesday that she wanted the emails release was the first time she had taken questions from reporters in a month. This has given Republicans ammunition, saying that she has something to hide.
She also answered some questions about the $25 million she and Bill Clinton have made from speeches since January of 2014, along with even more money contributed to their charitable foundation. She also said she now felt voting for the Iraq War was a mistake.