Colin Powell is pushing back on reports suggesting that he might have given Hillary Clinton the idea to use a private email account as Secretary of State, telling media outlets that “her people are trying to pin it on me”.
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Clinton had reportedly told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Powell advised her to use a personal account, according to the New York Times.
Judicial Watch is among several groups that have sued the government over access to records about Clinton’s service as secretary of state. During the court proceedings, Clinton’s email – and the question of whether or not she deliberately sought to hide information normally subject to FOIA – has been a central topic of discussion.
The Clinton campaign, as could be expected, was not particularly thrilled with the entirety of the judge’s decision.
They cover Clinton’s first three months as secretary of State in early 2009, a period for which Clinton did not turn over any emails to the State Department a year ago. “This is just another lawsuit meant to try to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign”.
The judge said the group failed to demonstrate that an hours-long deposition was necessary to clarify why Clinton set up the private server, as opposed to seeking the information “through other, less burdensome or intrusive means such as interrogatories”. “This is just another lawsuit meant to try to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and so we are glad that the judge has accepted our offer to answer these questions in writing rather than grant Judicial Watch’s request”, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon told Politico.
(The story’s subtext, that former and current Cabinet secretaries sit around and discuss ways to circumvent public-records laws, is a separate issue.) For another, Powell used a private email address but not a private server; his address was through AOL.
The timetable could push Mrs Clinton’s answers past the November presidential election unless Judicial Watch sends its questions earlier than mid-October.
The State Department is conducting its own review.
Colin Powell would love to be excluded from Hillary Clinton’s email nonsense, if you don’t mind.
“Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department”, Conasan wrote, Powell “thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier – to keep her personal account and use it for most messages”.
The Republican said he told Mrs Clinton his use of personal email “vastly improved” communications within the department, which at the time did not have an equivalent internal system. FBI director James Comey decided not to bring criminal charges against Clinton, but files from the investigation were turned over to Congress last week.
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Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon declared victory Friday and dismissed Judicial Watch as “a right-wing organization that has been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s”.
