During the course of the interview, Clinton was asked by CNN reporter Brianna Keilar about her interesting email practices and a subpoena issued for emails sent and received on Clinton's personal server during her time as Secretary of State. From the interview:
KEILAR: One of the issues that has eroded some trust that we've seen is the issue of your email practices while you were secretary of state. I think there's a lot of people who don’t understand what your thought process was on that.
Can you tell me the story of how you decided to delete 33,000 emails and how that deletion was executed?
CLINTON: Well, let's start from the beginning. Everything I did was permitted. There was no law. There was no regulation. There was nothing that did not give me the full authority to decide how I was going to communicate. Previous secretaries of state have said they did the same thing. And people across the government knew that I used one device - maybe it was because I am not the most technically capable person and wanted to make it as easy as possible.
KEILAR: But you said they - that they did the same thing, that they used a personal server and -
KEILAR: - subpoena deleted emails from them?
CLINTON: You know, you're starting with so many assumptions that are - I've never had a subpoena. There is - again, let's take a deep breath here. Everything I did was permitted by law and regulation. I had one device. When I mailed anybody in the government, it would go into the government system.
Now I didn't have to turn over anything. I chose to turn over 55,000 pages because I wanted to go above and beyond what was expected of me because I knew the vast majority of everything that was official already was in the State Department system.
And now I think it's kind of fun. People get a real-time behind-the-scenes look at what I was emailing about and what I was communicating about.
Clinton was in fact issued a subpoena for her emails during her time at the State Department on March 4, 2015, which was a Wednesday, after revelations of personal email use came to light. Her attorney acknowledged the subpoena had been received on March 27 and said they were working on responding to it.
Clinton lawyer David Kendall responded to the subpoena on March 27, writing that Clinton was awaiting approval from the State Department before providing them to the committee.
"This letter will respond to (1) the subpoena duces tecum issued by the Benghazi Select Committee to the Hon. Hillary R. Clinton and served by agreement on March 4, 2015," Kendall wrote at the time.
A copy of the subpoena:
Kendall.clinton Subpoena - 2015.03.04
The Clinton campaign is arguing Hillary Clinton was not under subpoena during the time when she decided on her own to delete 33,000 emails from her personal server after deeming them on her own they were personal. Clinton left the State Department in February 2013 but didn't start deleting emails until the fall of 2014. Clinton said in the CNN interview she "never had a subpoena." She didn't have one in 2014, that is correct, but she was in fact issued one earlier this year after revelations of her personal email use came to light.
But it wasn't just the subpoena issue Clinton was dishonest about in the interview. Clinton claimed the following:
-"Now I didn't have to turn over anything. I chose to turn over 55,000 pages because I wanted to go above and beyond what was expected of me because I knew the vast majority of everything that was official already was in the State Department system."
-Yes she did. According to 2009 National Archive requirements and federal records laws, Clinton was required to turn over all State Department related emails before her departure in February 2013. Because Clinton erased her personal server, we will never know if she actually did in fact turn everything government related over as required. Clinton didn't go above and beyond, she did the bare minimum.
-"I had one device."
She had multiple devices. She's admitted as much in pre-campaign interviews and there are photos showing her using more than one device.
-"When I mailed anybody in the government, it would go into the government system."
False, a number of Clinton's staffers were also using personal email that of course, went to Clinton's personal server.
Finally, according to Benghazi Select Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, the State Department and Clinton aren't responding properly to multiple subpoenas that were issued surrounding Clinton's email.
"The committee immediately subpoenaed Clinton personally after learning the full extent of her unusual email arrangement with herself, and would have done so earlier if the State Department or Clinton had been forthcoming that State did not maintain custody of her records and only Secretary Clinton herself had her records when Congress first requested them," Gowdy said in a statement yesterday. “The fact remains, despite when this subpoena was issued, Secretary Clinton had a statutory duty to preserve records from her entire time in office, and she had a legal duty to cooperate with and tell the truth to congressional investigators requesting her records going back to September of 2012. Yet despite direct congressional inquiry, she refused to inform the public of her unusual email arrangement. This information only came to light because of a Select Committee request, not a voluntary decision to turn over records almost two years after leaving office, records which always should have been in State’s custody. Moreover, the timing of the Secretary's decision to delete and attempt to permanently destroy emails is curious at best. The Secretary left office in February of 2013. By her own admission she did not delete or destroy emails until the fall of 2014, well after this Committee had been actively engaged in securing her emails from the Department of State. For 20 months, it was not too burdensome or cumbersome for the Secretary to house records on her personal server but mysteriously in the fall of 2014 she decided to delete and attempt to permanently destroy those same records."
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