STRATEGIC MEMORANDUM
TO: Editorial Boards
FROM: Brad Woodhouse, President, Correct The Record
DATE: September 9, 2015
SUBJECT: Hillary Clinton’s Email: Not a Scandal
For many months, the media has covered former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email. The conversation about Clinton’s emails has continued to escalate, buoyed in large part by political operatives who seek to defeat Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that using a personal email as Secretary of State was far from the best choice. She has taken full responsibility for the decision she made and said she was sorry for the mistake.
But what’s also clear from the available facts is that this is not a scandal, and it should not be an issue that defines the 2016 campaign for the presidency.
First, Hillary Clinton committed no crime by using a personal email and is not the subject of a criminal investigation. Anne Tompkins, who oversaw the prosecution of General David Petraeus for the mishandling of classified information, put it clearly:
Clinton is not being investigated for knowingly sending or receiving classified materials improperly. Indeed, the State Department has confirmed that none of the information that has surfaced on Clinton’s server thus far was classified at the time it was sent or received. […] Her decision not to segregate her email accounts was regrettable, but unlike the actions and prosecution of Petraeus, there has been no evidence of criminal conduct.
Second, the security of Clinton’s email was never proven to be compromised, and Clinton never sent or received information marked classified. During the time she was Secretary of State, Clinton’s email was never shown to be hacked. During that same period, the security of official government server systems was repeatedly compromised. As Tompkins notes above, none of the emails Clinton sent or received were marked classified. However, before Clinton’s emails can be released publicly, their content must be reviewed by officials for information newly deemed sensitive. This review would occur for personal and government email alike.
Third, the intense focus on Clinton’s email mistake is disproportionate and hypocritical considering so many of her Republican rivals did precisely the same thing. As the Newark Star-Ledger put it in an editorial over the weekend, the coverage of Clinton’s email has been “overblown,” in part because, “Jeb Bush appears to have done something extraordinarily similar as governor. He just hasn’t gotten the same media scrutiny. Both Bush and Clinton conducted public and private business with their personal emails.” Other Republican candidates are guilty of much greater sins in regards to emails and transparency.
All in all, did Hillary Clinton make a mistake in deciding to use a personal email? She’s the first to admit as much, and she has offered a complete apology for having used this system. However, months of sensational coverage—often driven forward by anonymous, highly partisan and regularly debunked Congressional sources—has resulted in the spread of misinformation and the illusion of a scandal that does not exist. Worst of all, it has distracted from the issues that matter the most to Americans.
Hillary Clinton’s Personal Email Use Was Lawful
Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email account for business was lawful. “Hillary Clinton’s exclusive use of a personal email account to conduct official business as secretary of State caused seems to have stayed within the law, experts say.” [Hill, 3/3/15]
Gary Bass, Founder of OMB Watch: Because rules regarding personal emails “weren’t in effect when Clinton was in office, ‘she was in compliance with the laws and regulations.’” “In Clinton’s defense, we should note that it was only after Clinton left the State Department, that the National Archives issued a recommendation that government employees should avoid conducting official business on personal emails (though they noted there might be extenuating circumstances such as an emergency that require it). Additionally, in 2014, President Barack Obama signed changes to the Federal Records Act that explicitly said federal officials can only use personal email addresses if they also copy or send the emails to their official account. Because these rules weren’t in effect when Clinton was in office, ‘she was in compliance with the laws and regulations at the time,’ said Gary Bass, founder and former director of OMB Watch, a government accountability organization.” [Politifact, 3/12/15]
Hillary Clinton’s Personal Email Use Was Secure
Security experts and consultants ensured that “robust protections were put in place and additional upgrades and techniques employed over time” to secure Hillary Clinton’s emails. “What level of encryption was employed? Who was the service provider? The security and integrity of her family’s electronic communications was taken seriously from the onset when it was first set up for President Clinton’s team. While the curiosity about the specifics of this set up is understandable, given what people with ill intentions can do with such information in this day and age, there are concerns about broadcasting specific technical details about past and current practices. Suffice it to say, robust protections were put in place and additional upgrades and techniques employed over time as they became available, including consulting and employing third party experts.” [The Facts About Hillary Clinton’s Emails, The Briefing, accessed 7/14/15]
National Journal: “It is unclear whether the State Department could have actually provided stronger protections, as the agency has not been exempt from cyber vulnerabilities.” “It is unclear whether the State Department could have actually provided stronger protections, as the agency has not been exempt from cyber vulnerabilities. Late last year, the agency was forced to shut down its email system after hackers apparently infiltrated the network.” [National Journal, 3/3/15]
AP: Since the Secret Service was guarding Clinton’s home, an email server there would have been well protected. “And since the Secret Service was guarding Clinton’s home, an email server there would have been well protected from theft or a physical hacking. But homemade email servers are generally not as reliable, secure from hackers or protected from fires or floods as those in commercial data centers. Those professional facilities provide monitoring for viruses or hacking attempts, regulated temperatures, off-site backups, generators in case of power outages, fire-suppression systems and redundant communications lines.” [AP, 3/4/15]
State Dept. Spokesman: “It is routine to upgrade information to classified status during the FOIA process.” “‘Portions of 25 emails were subsequently upgraded’ to classified, State spokesman Alex Gerlach said late Tuesday. ‘It is routine to upgrade information to classified status during the FOIA process. … The information that has been classified today through our FOIA review was sent in 2009. The occurrence of a subsequent upgrade does not in itself mean that anyone did something wrong or violated the law when they sent or received this information.’” [Politico, 6/30/15]
Hillary Clinton’s Personal Email Followed Precedent
No Secretary of State relied exclusively on official email until John Kerry. “In a statement, State Department deputy spokesman, Marie Harf, told DailyMail.com: ‘The State Department has long had access to a wide array of Secretary Clinton’s records – including emails between her and Department officials with state.gov accounts.’ […] She added Mr Kerry is the first Secretary of State to ‘rely primarily on a state.gov email account.’” [Daily Mail, 3/2/15]
Colin Powell also used a personal email account during his tenure at the State Department. “Like Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State Colin Powell also used a personal email account during his tenure at the State Department, an aide confirmed in a statement. ‘He was not aware of any restrictions nor does he recall being made aware of any over the four years he served at State,’ the statement says. ‘He sent emails to his staff generally via their State Department email addresses. These emails should be on the State Department computers. He might have occasionally used personal email addresses, as he did when emailing to family and friends.’” [Politico, 3/3/15]
Republican Candidates Made Regular Use of Private Email
Jeb Bush “conducted all his communication on his private [email protected] account and “hand-selected” emails he turned over to the state archives. “The former governor conducted all his communication on his [email protected] and turned over the hand-selected batch to the state archives when he left office. Absent from the stash are emails the governor deemed not relevant to the public record: those relating to politics, fundraising and personal matters while he was governor.” [Tampa Bay Times, 1/3/15]
Complaint: A ‘secret email system’ existed in County Executive’s office and was “routinely used by selected insiders within the Scott Walker administration” for county business as well as unofficial purposes such as campaigning. “The complaint reveals a ‘secret email system’ that was ‘routinely used by selected insiders within the Walker administration’ for county business as well as unofficial purposes such as campaigning.” [Journal Sentinel, 1/26/12]
Marco Rubio used a personal email account to “vent” about Republicans to reporters. “As Marco Rubio’s time as House speaker dwindles, he finds himself double teamed by the Senate and Gov. Charlie Crist. Over the weekend, he decided to vent. After the House devolved into partisan chaos over a decision by Rubio’s team to block Democratic debate on an education bill, Rubio dashed off a series of e mails to St. Petersburg Times reporters on his personal e mail account. He freely offered opinions, laying out each chamber’s top priorities, deriding the governor’s last minute plan to cut gas taxes and criticizing a tax commission’s hesitance to cap government tax revenues.” [St. Petersburg Times, 4/23/08]
Chris Christie staffers used private emails to conduct state business and ignored journalists’ requests to view them. “Emails disclosed this past week show a top Christie aide asking the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to shut down three lanes on the busy George Washington Bridge, resulting in major backups for days last September. Those emails were leaked to reporters last week, even though one newspaper requested them nearly a month ago, only to be told they didn’t exist. The use of private emails adds Christie, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, to a growing list of administrations that use private email accounts and other digital services to conduct official business. In turn, state and federal officials, regardless of political party, have sidestepped public records laws meant to keep government activities transparent.” [Associated Press, 1/11/14]