Recent reports reveal that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a personal
email account during her time as Secretary of State.
This means that she skipped a State Department email account and used a
private email server registered to her and her husband, former President Bill
Clinton home address.
What makes an email a State Department or private email? Is it the email
server, the email account, the contents of the email, the source of the email,
or the recipient of the email?
At the start of her tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton was given the choice of using both a State Department and a
private email account. Having the two meant deciding before hand when to
use the State Department account and when to use the private account. In short,
the decision to segregate was still within her power except that the decision
must be made prior to using her email account.
She decided to have only one email account but used it for both – State
Department or official government business and private ones. In this
case, the decision to segregate was still hers except that it was done prior
AND after the receiving, replying, or the sending of emails.
According to Hillary Clinton, having only one email account seemed to be
more convenient and appropriate at the time. There was no outright ban at
the State Department on using personal email address to conduct official
government business. Her critics still have to present evidence that she
violated any law or State Department rule.
In fact, her predecessors Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice both had
personal email accounts during their time as Secretaries of State. Powell also
used personal email to communicate with his own State Department staff, foreign
ministers and ambassadors.
Hillary Clinton had and continuous to have an email server that
she shares with former President Bill Clinton at home. Such a server has
experienced no security breaches since its installation. She is not banned from
having a Gmail or Yahoo account using their respective servers.
Suppose she received an email from an ambassador or a foreign
minister, will that make the email official?
Using a private email account, you send an email to a government
official with ”.gov” email account. Is that
private or official? Suppose you receive an email from an ambassador, foreign
minister or from an employee who has a “.gov” email
account. Is that official or private?
The truth is, it is basically the contents of the email that determines
whether it is official or private. And the decision to determine “either or” is
within the power of the email account holder whether exercised prior to or
after sending or receiving the emails.
Clinton handed over 55,000 emails stemming from her duties as
Secretary of State. She asserts that no classified information was ever relayed
through her emails. Neither was there any sensitive information found on those
emails so far. In fact, she is encouraging the State Department to release them
all for the public to discern.
Hillary Clinton, if she decides to run, will most likely be the
Democratic presidential nominee and will most probably be the first woman
President of the United States. I am not surprised that the Republicans are
trying very hard to get her tarnished to prevent this probability from
happening.
As my barber proudly proclaims, “I am Ready for
Hillary”.
