Hillary Clinton Knew the Risks of a Private Email Account

As secretary of state, the Democrat used a private server for work matters and ignored her employees’ security advice.

She may have lost the last five caucuses to her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, but Hillary Clinton still seems to be well positioned to lock up the Democratic nomination. As for facing off against Republicans Donald Trump or Ted Cruz in the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8, commentators are virtually unanimous: Clinton will have a good chance of being elected to the White House. Yet, one risk could dog her at least until the end of the primaries: her use of a private email account when she led the State Department between January 2009 and January 2013. This has raised questions so disturbing that things can’t be as innocuous as she seems to suggest: the Federal Bureau of Investigation has assigned no fewer than 147 agents to investigate the affair.*

An extensive investigation by The Washington Post has revealed that the former secretary of state was far from ignorant of the security problems linked to the exclusive use of a private email account, which furthermore was connected to a private server in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, in upstate New York. On Feb. 17, 2009, less than one month after the diplomatic chief assumed her responsibilities at Foggy Bottom, security experts, the State Department’s information technology team, and National Security Agency officials met to discuss Clinton’s request to bypass standard protocol using an email address provided by the administration. They all explained to Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, the risks posed by the secretary of state’s request. But as she explained during a memorable press conference in March 2015 at the United Nations, she had only chosen to keep emails related to personal matters private.

The warning had no effect. Mills and Huma Abedin, a close adviser to the Democrat questioned by the FBI, did everything to respond to Clinton’s wishes. They first asked security experts if she could have an encrypted BlackBerry like Barack Obama. The request was in vain: it was too complicated and too expensive. Instead, the experts proposed installing a separate computer in the secretary of state’s office so that she could read personal emails. Nothing worked. Clinton continued to use her private device for professional communications.

The IT team grew increasingly nervous about their boss’s whims. They were concerned about hackers and piracy. In March 2009, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell wrote an emphatic note: “Our review reaffirms our belief that the vulnerabilities and risks associated with the use of Blackberries … considerably outweigh the convenience their use can add.” Clinton responded that she “gets it.” But she ignored the recommendation. Over the next two months, her communications were not even minimally encrypted. Some emails blended public and private life, notably a message concerning the need for the Department of State and the Clinton Foundation to provide assistance to Haiti.

At the Department of State, many officials agreed: Hillary Clinton did not pay enough attention to the rules regarding classified material and the preservation of government records. On the latter point, her exclusive use of a private server effectively skirted the obligation of keeping permanent records of business communications and ran contrary to the Freedom of Information Act requirement of transparency. A document titled “Bulletin 2008-05” published in January 2009 by the National Archives was explicit about this. Yet, Clinton turned over only about 30,000 pages of emails, and only after a formal request from the Department of State and after The New York Times made the issue public.

Clinton often leaves the impression that she acted like other secretaries of state before her. Although it is true that Colin Powell who served from 2001 to 2005 had a private email account, practically speaking, he used only his business account for classified communications.

The story is embarrassing. Clinton made an error in judgment. Legal scholars nevertheless consider it unlikely that the Democratic candidate will be formally charged. They recall that Gen. David Petraeus escaped with only a minor punishment when he sent highly classified documents to his mistress…

*Editor’s note: Since it was reported by The Washington Post, figures for the investigation have been revised downward, and The Post has updated its story to say the figure of 147 agents is too high. FBI officials said the number of personnel involved is fewer than 50.