The FBI and several congressional committees are investigating Clinton.
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Earlier on Wednesday, the Pentagon officials also confirmed that Ashton Carter violated the communication protocol of Defence Department at least till May this year, in response to query after a NY Times report disclosed usage of personal email account for official communication.
Carter told reporters traveling with him in the Middle East Thursday that he had made a mistake and ended the practice a few months ago.
Carter told CBS News in Baghdad Thursday that using the personal email was a mistake. “He is confident that his work-related email has been and will continue to be preserved within the federal records system”, he added. “I didn’t in this case”, declared the Pentagon chief.
Both the White House and the Pentagon said they prepared to cooperate with legitimate congressional oversight into this matter.
In September, the NYT submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to see Carter’s emails from the unsecured email account.
“That I shouldn’t have been doing”.
Carter arrived at a base in eastern Afghanistan during his swing through the region that includes stops in Iraq and Turkey, and was slated to meet with his Afghan counterpart Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai and Gen. John Campbell, the US commander in Afghanistan, according to reports. “It’s not like I didn’t have the opportunity to understand what the right thing to do was”.
“It’s entirely my mistake”.
Carter’s use of private email could now draw similar fire.
Carter noted that he occasionally used his iPhone to send “administrative messages” to immediate staff. In October, US President Barack Obama reversed his policy on the country to extend his troops’ stay to the end of 2016. 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.
McCain said the committee has requested copies of the emails and will conduct a review “to ensure sensitive information was not compromised”.
159-a-09-(Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in remarks to Afghanistan’s acting defense minister)-“can do together”-Defense Secretary Ash Carter says he wants to help Afghanistan protect itself and at the same time be an enduring friend and partner for the long term”.
“Like Secretaries Panetta and Hagel before him, Secretary Carter is trying to protect America from terrorists, weapons proliferators, and cyberattacks”.
Clinton’s email practices were revealed in March.
It was not clear when Carter stopped the practice, but the Times cited a White House official as saying that Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff, learned about the incident in May and ordered officials in the White House to contact the Pentagon on Carter’s email practice. In November, the Defense Department provided The Times with 72 work-related emails that Carter sent or received through his personal account. Such bags are typically used to destroy classified documents.
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“He (Carter) says that those emails did not jeopardize the proper protection of classified information”.
