Hillary Continues to Distort State Department IG Report on Email Scandal

Despite the bashing Hillary Clinton has endured over the last two weeks after the release of a State Department Inspector General Report that rebuked her for using personal emails for officials business while she was Secretary of State via a private email server in her New York home, Clinton continues to deny she did anything wrong and claims she used the same email practices of previous secretaries of state. I discussed this issue in my June 2 Breitbart.com article, “Hillary’s Flimsy Colin Powell Excuse Won’s Save Her from Email Scandal.”

Clinton continued to make these misleading claims yesterday on ABC’s The Week in an interview by George Stephanopoulos. Not surprisingly, Stephanopoulos, who worked in the Clinton White House, did not press Clinton on this issue and mostly asked her softball questions. Below is a transcript of Stephanopoulos’ interview of Clinton on this issue with commentary on the truthfulness of her answers.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Madam Secretary, on the e-mail issue, as you know, the State Department inspector general report was quite tough on your practices and it concluded — and I want to show it right here — that Secretary Clinton had an obligation to discuss using her personal e-mail account to conduct official business with their offices and, according to these officials, diplomatic security and the information resource management offices did not and would not approve your exclusive reliance on a personal e-mail account to conduct department business because of the restrictions in the foreign affairs manual and the security risks in doing so. Do you now accept their conclusion that your exclusive use of a personal account was not allowed, that you broke State Department rules?

CLINTON: You know, look, George, I thought that the report actually made it clear that the practice I used was used by other secretaries, other high-ranking State Department officials.

COMMENT: False. The IG report makes clear no secretary of state had a similar email system to the private email server in Clinton’s home in New York. The report also explains that email rules during Secretary Powell’s tenure were still developing since State’s use of the Internet at that time was primitive.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No one else had exclusive use —

(CROSSTALK)

CLINTON: — if I had to — if I had to do it over again, I certainly wouldn’t. But I think that the rules were not clarified until after I had left, because it had been the practice of others. There was certainly reason to believe — which I did — that what I practiced was in keeping with others’ practices.

COMMENT: False. The State IG report explains that the Department’s email rules were strengthened before she became secretary and includes charts showing they evolved.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you were the only one who had exclusive use of a personal account. Secretary Powell did have a personal e-mail account as well and they were very, very clear.

CLINTON: Well, George, I have to tell you that — that, you know, I — I will say it was a mistake. I would not do it again. But I think that the rules were not clarified until after I had left and the first secretary of State to use a government email account was John Kerry, some months into his tenure. Those are the facts.

COMMENT: Misleading. Kerry was the first Secretary of State to have an unclassified State email account because Condoleezza Rice refused to use unclassified email for work purposes when she was Secretary for security reasons. Most State employees received unclassified State Department emails accounts under Powell but he never got one. The rules were clarified further after Clinton left State but were clearly barred her private email server when she started at State in 2009.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But the — the reports — so you don’t accept the conclusions of the report, because they say you were unmindful of the rules.

CLINTON: Everybody in the department knew that I was e-mailing from a personal address. Hundreds of people knew it. People around the government knew it. And, uh, you know, that was what the practice had been and that’s what I did, as well.

COMMENT: Misleading and false. The IG Report does say that some senior officials knew about Clinton’s use of a personal email account for official email but also says they did not know the details. The report states that two State Department IT staffers raised concerns about Clinton’s private email server because they worried it did not comply with federal record keeping laws and regulations. Both were both told to drop the issue. One was told to never speak about it again. Clinton may have a point that others in the government knew she was using an unclassified email account for official business but she is still responsible for setting up this system and the security breaches it probably caused.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So I’ll take it that you don’t accept their conclusion. Just one other question on this. Has there — have you had any contact yet with the FBI, you or your agents, over this matter?

CLINTON: I — I have not been asked to come in for an interview. I’ve said I am more than willing since last August and I would like to do that sooner instead of later and get this matter wrapped up and behind us.

COMMENT: Misleading. This probably means Clinton has been contacted by the FBI and is another slippery answer similar to her prior insistence that the FBI was not investigating her; it was conducting a “security inquiry.” FBI Director Comey told reporters on May 11 that he was unfamiliar with the term “security inquiry” and confirmed that the inquiry of Clinton’s email system was indeed an investigation.