According to State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, Hillary Clinton was not issued a State Department BlackBerry phone during her tenure as Secretary of State. As Politico points out, this means that famous photo of Clinton on her BlackBerry (which she currently uses as her Twitter profile and header photo picture) did not depict her holding a government-owned device.
From Politico:
“Secretary Clinton … was not issued a State Department BlackBerry,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a regular briefing for reporters.
Clinton claimed at a news conference Tuesday that she elected to use a personal email account since she couldn’t have both personal email and an official State Department account on a single device.
Psaki confirmed that the department’s policy was in effect when Clinton served as secretary from 2009 to 2013, though it has since changed.
“Prior to 2014 and the release of a new generation of BlackBerries, the security protocols the State Department deployed did not permit automated access” to a private account and a government account, Psaki said. “That wasn’t permitted at the time.”
This is...interesting. Clinton's handling of the situation has been pathetic at best, and the problems keep mounting. Her press conference was an unmitigated disaster, plus she contradicted her claims from just last month. The fact that nobody in the State Department questioned Clinton's email habits is nothing short of mind-boggling.
Meanwhile, other politicians are questioning Clinton's claim that carrying two devices was just far too much of a hassle. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a picture yesterday from her time as governor--complete with two phones and an infant.
This is just fantastic pic.twitter.com/mk0osxXyIl
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) March 11, 2015
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