Carter is visiting several US allies in the Middle East this week to meet government leaders, military commanders and troops involved in the fight against Islamic State.
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While traveling in Iraq Thursday, Carter told reporters the ordeal was “entirely my mistake, entirely on me”. But an administration official said that when the White House chief of staff, Denis McDonough, learned about Carter’s email practices in May, McDonough directed the White House Counsel’s Office to contact the Defense Department to ask why Carter was relying on the personal account.
Some critics have charged that Clinton’s use of a private email server skirted the preservation of her communications on government servers as a long-term record. “And basically, what that means is I was doing it for longer than I should have”.
“It’s entirely my mistake Entirely on me”, Carter said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged Thursday that it was a “mistake” to use a personal email account for official correspondence.
He said as Secretary of Defence, he does use e-mail very much. President Barack Obama recently called it a mistake but said the issue had been “ginned up” by the campaign season.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said an inspector general should review Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s admitted use of personal email, while the Senate Armed Services leader says his committee will be probing the matter.
Hillary Clinton came under heavy criticism when it was revealed in March that she had used a personal email account as secretary of state.
The front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination and a former secretary of state, Clinton was widely criticized for mixing work and private business while emailing.
“The Senate Armed Services Committee has requested copies of the emails and will be conducting a review to ensure that sensitive information was not compromised”, McCain said. They initially were provided to the New York Times in response to the newspaper’s request under the Freedom of Information Act. He also has made cybersecurity one of his top policy priorities at the Pentagon, which is among the most frequently and intensively targeted government agencies by global hackers. Cook also said Carter stopped the practice, but Cook did not say when. The Times said the emails were exchanges between Carter and Eric Fanning, who was his chief of staff at the time and is now the acting Army secretary.
The messages were on a range of government business-related tops, such as speeches, meetings, and news media appearances, the Times noted.
None of the Carter email correspondence released by the Pentagon included classified material, although they covered only the period from April 1-30.
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However, Carter’s account of how often he used the private email account contradicted the words by the Times. Such bags are typically used to destroy classified documents. 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.
