After the State Department Inspector General issued a damning report last week proving former Secretary Hillary Clinton violated Department rules, the Federal Records Act and compromised national security by using a private email server to conduct all of her government business, the Clinton campaign responded by arguing other Secretaries had done the same thing.
"While political opponents of Hillary Clinton are sure to misrepresent this report for their own partisan purposes, in reality, the Inspector General documents [show] just how consistent her email practices were with those of other Secretaries and senior officials at the State Department who also used personal email. The report shows that problems with the State Department's electronic record keeping systems were longstanding and that there was no precedent of someone in her position having a State Department email account until after the arrival of her successor. Contrary to the false theories advanced for some time now, the report notes that her use of personal email was known to officials within the Department during her tenure, and that there is no evidence of any successful breach of the Secretary's server. We agree that steps ought to be taken to ensure the government can better maintain official records, and if she were still at the State Department, Secretary Clinton would embrace and implement any recommendations, including those in this report, to help do that. But as this report makes clear, Hillary's use of personal email was not unique, and she took steps that went much further than others to appropriately preserve and release her records," the Clinton campaign released last week.
This is a false argument. No other Secretary of State, including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, used private email exclusively to conduct all government business and neither set up a private server inside their homes. Further, there is no proof either Powell or Rice shared classified, top secret information on a private email account.
Now in an exclusive interview with Fox News, former State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard is debunking the Clinton campaign narrative, exposing Clinton's lies about security protocol and argues he would have also investigated her use of a private server.
"I would have been stunned had I been asked to send an email to her at a personal server, private address. I would have declined to do so on security grounds and if she had sent one to me, I probably would have started an investigation," Krongard said.
Krongard also touched on a key point at the center of the ongoing FBI criminal investigation of Clinton's server: How did classified information jump from a secure, closed, government system to Clinton's private server? We'll get that answer if the FBI moves forward with an indictment.