by John M. Curtis
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Copyright March 6, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

                Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has some explaining to do why she used a private email account for all her official communications during her tenure at the State Department [Jan. 21, 2009 to Feb. 1, 2013].  Clinton apparently breached email protocol using a private email over a government-issued-ones for all her communications while heading the State Department.  Turing over some 55,000 pages of private emails doesn’t begin to undo the damage to her trustworthiness over transparent disclosures of information required by White House policy.  “I think it is, obviously highly unusual,” said former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, adding to the controversy.  “There are lots of briefings that you have, certainly when you go into the White House about preserving any email that you have, making sure it’s part of your officials account,” said Gibbs.

             Clinton officials dismissed the New York Times email revelations as irrelevant, since Hillary insists she preserved with her own private email server all the required communications under federal law.  When the government insists employees use officials email, there’s nothing ambiguous about it.  Hillary bypassed the usual-and-customary procedure of using secure government emails to conduct business outside the usual channels.  Pouncing on Hillary’s email issues, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s spokeswoman Kristy Campbell jumped all over the it.  “Hillary Clinton should release her emails.  Hopefully she hasn’t already destroyed them,” raising the perfect talking points going forward for 2016 GOP presidential campaign.  Whatever happened in Benghazi under Hillary’s watch, raising trust issues opens up a can of worms for Hillary’s run for president.

             Expected to announce her 2016 bid next month, Hillary now has a dark cloud over her campaign, raising anxiety in the Democratic Party.  When Obama’s former press secretary raises issues, it shows Democrats aren’t on the same page.  Gibbs’s critique hurts the party without waiting for the Hillary campaign to come up with a more plausible explanation.  “I think this is another one of those things the Clinton campaign, such as it is, is going to explain,” said Gibbs, offering little help to the Democrat Party’s best chance of holding the White House.  Gibbs remarks reflect lingering antipathy from the 2008 campaign when Hillary offered a scathing indictment of Obama’s qualifications.  Gibbs, who served as Obama’s 2008 campaign communication director, still fights the old battles.  Raising more doubts about Hillary now only makes Democrats’ road to the White House more difficult.

             When former Booze Allen Hamilton, CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified government docs in May 2013 to the media, fleeing from Hawaii to Hong Kong, eventually ending up in Moscow, it was before anyone worried about the privacy of government emails.  Hillary never publicly expressed concerns about the privacy of government emails or classified documents.  “Both the letter and the spirit of the rules permitted State Department officials to use non-governmental email, as long as appropriate records were preserved,” said Hillary spokesman Nick Merrill.  While Obama signed the Modernized Federal Records Act into law Dec. 1, 2014 requiring the use of government emails, Hillary fell under the old law permitting the use of private emails.  Hillary was required to preserve all private emails used for government business.

             Merrill makes matters worse for Hillary insisting she conformed to the “spirit” of the law.  State Department officials were informed in 2009 to use government email whenever possible.  Hillary’s decision to use her own server stemmed from the Clinton’s long history of getting hacked by political operatives, trying, by whatever means, to discredit Bill’s presidency or, for that matter, Hillary’s own work.  After Matt Drudge broke the Lewinsky sex scandal Jan. 30, 1998, the Clinton’s have been in damage control mode, highly vigilant about their public and private communications.  Hillary’s attempt to keep her State Department emails private directly relates to the ongoing attempts by various media and private investigators to dig up dirt.  Given her husband’s history and her high profile, a secure private email made sense to best protect her public and private email communications.

             If explained logically, Hillary’s use of private secure emails makes perfect sense, given her unique situation.  Given the Romanian hacker Marcel Lazar Lehel, codenamed Guccifer, breaking into the email accounts of Dorothy Koch Bush, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Council of Foreign Relations, Federal Reserve Board and Hillary aid Sidney Blumenthal, etc., Clinton would have every concern about the privacy of her email communications.  If she gave the public a plausible context, she’d rob Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus of the latest talking points before she announces for president.  When you look at past high profile hacks, Hillary had plenty of reason to keep her official emails on a private server.  If Hillary’s emails are all preserved and turned over to the appropriate people, she’ll find email hubbub quickly out of today’s headlines and off the tabloids.

About the Author 

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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