UNITED NATIONS - Embattled Hillary Rodham Clinton used a private e-mail account to conduct State Department business for “convenience’’ but has since released all e-mails related to her work as secretary of State, she said Tuesday as she tried to dampen a controversy that could overshadow her potential presidential campaign.
“Looking back, it would have been better for me to use two separate phones and two separate e-mail accounts,” Clinton said at a news conference following a speech at a U.N. conference on women’s economic status. “I thought using one (mobile) device would be simpler. Obviously, it hasn’t worked out that way.”
Clinton said she went “above and beyond” what she was required to do regarding preserving e-mails from the personal account she used on a private server. Using a personal e-mail was permissible during her tenure as the nation’s top diplomat as long as she kept the records.
She said she did not discuss classified information on her personal e-mail. “I have no doubt we have done exactly what we should have done,” she said.
Clinton turned over 30,490 e-mails to the State Department last fall at the department’s request, just under half of the 62,320 total e-mails she sent or received as Secretary of State. Clinton’s office said in information supplied after her news conference. More than 27,500 involved official government e-mail addresses. The remaining 31,830 e-mails were deemed personal and deleted.
Clinton said she “chose not to keep” personal e-mails, such as those related to daughter Chelsea’s wedding in 2010 or the funeral for her mother, Dorothy Rodham, who died in 2011.
“No one wants their personal e-mails made public and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy,” she said.
The leading Democratic presidential contender downplayed the role the uproar would play in the presidential campaign.
“I trust the American people to make their decisions about political and public matters and I feel that I’ve taken unprecedented steps to provide these work-related emails,” she said. “They’re going to be in the public domain, and I think that Americans will, you know, find that interesting and I look forward to having that discussion.’’
The former secretary of State’s remarks at a crowded news conference outside the U.N. Security Council chambers overshadowed her message earlier in the day about gender equality. A throng of cameras and reporters, many waiting for hours to get their credentials, were there only to hear her comments about the e-mail controversy.
Clinton said she used a private e-mail server that was installed in her home originally for the use of former president Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton insisted that there were “numerous safeguards” in place and there were “no security breaches.” Clinton said personal e-mails were discarded and added the server would remain private.