The head of the House Armed Services Committee called Thursday for an inspector general review of Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s use of personal email at the Pentagon, a practice revealed overnight and which Carter has called a mistake.
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Defense Secretary Ash Carter has told his counterpart in Afghanistan that the United States is committed to supporting Afghan security forces and building their capabilities for years to come.
“I certainly don’t use it for classified information, and any work-related e-mail is preserved, as is required”, he noted.
Islamic State “is a new dynamic in this insurgency, and given the volatility that we’ve seen emerge from its use of social media and its recruitment elsewhere, it is really important to stay on top of and monitor and deter any kind of threat that actually could emerge from what is a relatively nascent element in the overall insurgency”, the official said.
It was not initially clear, though, how many total government-related emails were sent and received from the personal account.
According to the Times, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough confronted Carter about his email habits in May, three months after Carter became defense secretary.
Carter continued the practice of using his personal email for at least two months after news broke that Hillary Clinton had used a private email server for official purposes during her tenure as secretary of State, The Times reported.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter has admitted he made a mistake by using his personal email for official work as the opposition Republican party used this as an opportunity for slamming the Obama Administration.
Carter acknowledged using the account to conduct official business during his first few months as Pentagon chief, the Defense Department said in a statement released Wednesday.
The Times reported it had obtained 72 work-related emails that Carter sent or received from his personal email account. Cook declined to say whether it was a violation of Pentagon email policies. Earnest also expressed some surprise that, given the furor over Hillary Clinton’s personal email use, another Cabinet secretary would make this error.
It is yet to be clarified how many emails Carter sent via his personal account but Cook said that all of them were also copied to his official account to be kept for records. Such bags are typically used to destroy classified information.
Asked if Mr. Carter’s move compromised sensitive government documents, Mr. Earnest said “it does not appear that his mistake led to any sort of breach of classified information”.
Cook said Carter does not directly email anyone within the Department of Defense or the USA government except “a very small group of senior advisers, usually his chief of staff”.
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Cook said Carter “does not use his personal email or official email for classified material”. An inspector general has said there was classified “Top Secret” information on Clinton’s private account – having classified government material outside a secure government account is illegal – and the FBI is investigating.
