State Dept. IG: Clinton's Email Broke the Rules

Agency has 'longstanding, systemic weaknesses'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2016 11:00 AM CDT
State Dept. IG: Clinton's Email Broke the Rules
Hillary Clinton speaks in Commerce, Calif.   (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email use continues, but a report from the State Department's independent watchdog has arrived. The 83-page review from inspector general Steve Linick—whom the Clinton camp accuses of working with Republicans to take down her campaign—focuses on record keeping and isn't shy in noting Clinton did plenty wrong. Some highlights:

  • Clinton should have printed and saved all her emails from her time as secretary of state and handed over all work-related emails when she stepped down. "Because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act," the report finds, per Politico.
  • Clinton—who did not comply with an interview request—never sought State Department approval for her private email server. If she had, the department would have returned a firm no due to the "security risks," reports the AP.

  • A Clinton aide was warned in 2010 that the server might not preserve records in accordance with the law. The aide was unperturbed, noting the system had been reviewed by legal counsel, though the inspector general found no record of that, per the Washington Post.
  • Also in 2010, aide Huma Abedin wrote to Clinton about getting a State email so her messages to State employees wouldn't be received as spam. "Let's get separate address or device but I don't want any risk of the personal being accessible," Clinton wrote, per Politico.
  • The agency as a whole suffers from "longstanding, systemic weaknesses" that "go well beyond the tenure of any one Secretary of State," reads the report. For example, Colin Powell didn't follow department policy rules regarding public-record laws, either.
  • The department and its secretaries were "slow to recognize and to manage effectively the legal requirements and cybersecurity risks associated with electronic data communications."
(More Hillary Clinton stories.)

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