No Really: Hillary Wanted a Book With Advice About How To Delete Emails That "Stay Deleted"

Katie Pavlich | August 13, 2015 3:00 PM

Now why in the world would Hillary Clinton want a book about how to permanently delete emails?

According to a new report from ABC's Jon Karl, the former Secretary of State requested a book about how to delete email before leaving her position in early 2013. Bolding below is mine.

The last batch of Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department included one from Clinton asking to borrow a book called “Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better,” by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe.

Clinton has not said why she requested the book, but it includes some advice that is particularly interesting in light of the controversy over her unconventional email arrangement at the State Department and her decision to delete tens of thousands of emails she deemed to be purely personal.

The copy that ABC downloaded for $9.99 had some interesting revelations.

Take, for example, Chapter Six: “The Email That Can Land You In Jail.” The chapter includes a section entitled “How to Delete Something So It Stays Deleted.”

“Some people are hoarders, some are checkers,” the authors write. “The main thing to consider is that once you do decide to delete, it’s like taking the garbage from your kitchen and putting it in your hallway. It’s still there.”

The chapter advised that to truly delete emails may require a special rewriting program “to make sure that it’s not just elsewhere on the drive but has in fact been written over sixteen or twenty times and rendered undefinable.”

Why do you supposed Hillary wanted to borrow this particular book? pic.twitter.com/is6scXW8Hp
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) August 13, 2015

Happens to be the book that pops up if you do an Amazon search for "How to Delete Something So It Stays Deleted." https://t.co/spcFprJBqK
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) August 13, 2015

Clinton admits to deleting 30,000 emails she deemed "personal" that were mixed with government emails hosted on her personal server. That server has since been seized by the FBI after it was revealed by an Inspector General she had at least two, top secret and highly classified documents in her possession.

Earlier this year when Clinton addressed the email scandal, she claimed she used one email device (her Blackberry) and one email account (her private email) for convenience. What's more inconvenient, sifting through 30,000 emails for personal or classified information in order to delete them, or using a government email account? We know the answer and we know why she chose the former, not the latter.

I doubt Clinton's email advice book gave her the skills she needed to keep the 30,000 emails she "deleted" away from the FBI. If she did a poor job (which she probably did), the FBI will certainly find them.