Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has apologized countless times for using a private email server during her tenure as the U.S. Secretary of State. Hell, despite the current animosity between the two, even rival Bernie Sanders once famously defended Clinton against criticism, which provided SNL with a fantastic reason to bring Larry David onto the show. Yet the fact that her office made use of an unprotected email server to handle top-secret communications and documents isn’t a minor issue, according to a new report by the State Department’s inspector general issued to members of Congress.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that the inspector general’s most damning comments concerned whether or not she and her staff had cleared the use of a private email server with the appropriate personnel beforehand. The state department’s investigation “found no evidence” of Clinton, nor anyone in her office, attempting to request or receive special permission to use the email server in question. As a result, department officials agreed not to “approve her exclusive reliance on a personal email account to conduct Department business” currently or in the future.
Yet as both the new report and Clinton’s campaign spokesperson, Brian Fallon argued, the former Secretary of State wasn’t solely at fault for the issue. If anything, it was due to “longstanding systemic weaknesses” that went “well beyond the tenure of any one secretary of state”:
The report broadly criticized the State Department as well, saying that officials had been “slow to recognize and to manage effectively the legal requirements and cybersecurity risks” that emerged in the era of emails, particularly those of senior officials like Mrs. Clinton.
In a statement released to the press, Fallon highlighted the fact that Clinton wasn’t the only senior state department official found at fault by the investigation. He also maintained that, conspiracy theories notwithstanding, “her use of personal email was known to officials within the Department during her tenure, and that there is no evidence of any successful breach of the Secretary’s server.”
Fallon then took to Twitter to reiterate these particular findings by the report, noting that the “GOP will attack HRC because she is running for President.”
GOP will attack HRC because she is running for President, but IG report makes clear her personal email use was not unique at State Dept
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) May 25, 2016
When CNN’s Dan Merica brought up former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who also used a personal email address, Fallon quickly made sure to downplay the reporter’s emphasis on there being a major differences.
.@danmericaCNN Only possible difference with server is in terms of security, not recordkeeping, & report says no evidence of successful hack
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) May 25, 2016
Unfortunately for Fallon and the Clinton campaign, PolitiFact recently determined that although Powell used a personal email address, he didn’t host it on a private server in the manner that Clinton did.
(Via The New York Times)