Judicial Watch’s lawsuit has continued to keep the Clinton email controversy alive after an FBI investigation was closed last month with a decision not to bring criminal charges against the Democratic nominee.
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Powell’s camp immediately released a statement saying he had zero recollection of the aforementioned conversation, but that he had sent a memo outlining his use of a personal email account.
The State Department is reviewing almost 15,000 emails as part of a batch of previously undisclosed communications that emerged in the FBI’s yearlong investigation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server while secretary of State.
In another blow to Hillary Clinton and her email scandal, former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice said she does not remember speaking to Clinton in 2009 about the subject, a claim Clinton reportedly made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Powell’s suggestion reportedly came at a dinner attended by other former secretaries of state, including Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice. “During a House Select Committee on Benghazi hearing on October 22, 2015, Secretary Clinton testified with respect to (1) whether she sent or received emails that were marked classified at the time; (2) whether her attorneys reviewed each of the emails on her personal email system; (3) whether there was one, or more servers that stored work-related emails during her time as Secretary of State; and (4) whether she provided all her work-related emails to the Department of State”. “He used a secure State [Department] computer on his desk to manage classified information”.
This is not the first time Powell has spoken about his email usage while in President George W. Bush’s Cabinet from 2001 to 2005.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton checks her phone at the opening of the Libyan Conference, a meeting of worldwide allies to discuss the next steps for Libya, on March 29, 2011, in London. According to Powell, that is false.
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“He did write former Secretary Clinton an email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department”, his office told NBC on Friday. Asked why he thought Clinton had named him in her defense of the email controversy, he replied, “Why do you think?”
