Hillary Clinton and the Email Controversy: An Update

For the benefit of my barber, his friends and customers at the barbershop, I gave my personal take and update on the email controversy involving former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Although her critics and political opponents are trying to show that there was something wrong with what Clinton did with her email when she was Secretary of State, I have no doubt that the real motive is political. This is especially because she is now the leading presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.

It is reported 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 and/or policy.

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.

On the other hand, security breaches had been experienced by Federal agencies including the State Department and the White House. 

There are questions on whether she used her email to send or receive classified information. After reviewing a sampling of the 55,000 pages of emails, the Inspectors General have proffered that a small number of emails which did not contain any classified markings and/or dissemination controls, should have been classified at the time they were sent. The State Department has said it disagrees with this assessment. Disagreement between agencies as to classification of documents is obviously not the fault of Hillary Clinton.

Besides, making her liable today for acts committed that were not illegal when she committed them as Secretary of State is what we call in legal parlance, ex post facto.

There are efforts on the part of her political enemies and some in the media to press for investigation. Unfortunately, the investigations are beginning to look like “fishing expeditions” or worse, "witch hunting".

There is no law violated. The regulations and the State Department policy in place during her tenure permitted her to use a non-government email for work. In fact, most recently, the Department of Justice ruled that Hillary Clinton followed the law when she deleted her personal emails.

Meanwhile because of the impression that she is in trouble due to the email controversy, some are tempted to challenge her formidable candidacy. Although they are free to challenge and the more the merrier, they are wrong about their impression involving the email controversy.

For me, she is clean and on the clear. She should move on to reach her destiny – be the first woman president of the United States.