Hillary Clinton Email Scandal Deepens: A Personal Account Wasn’t All She Used

The Hillary Clinton email scandal has deepened, and now various media outlets are talking about more than her use of a personal account for official business, which many have presumed was to get around Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

On Wednesday, the Associated Press piled on to previous stories from the New York Times and Gawker showing that past FOIA requests for business emails from Clinton’s personal account went unanswered.

In the AP report, the story wasn’t simply about email, but the fact that she ran the personal account and all of its contents through her own computer system.

The news organization reviewed “Internet records” for the computer server that sent and received messages on the account and found that it belonged to an Internet service “registered to her family’s home in Chappaqua, New York.”

The report stated that such a practice by a high-ranking, Cabinet-level official was “unusual” and that it gave her “impressive” control in being able to control the contents of her archives.

This comes on the heels of a New York Times report in which the personal email revelation got more than just conservative bloggers talking, with various sites accusing the former Secretary of State and First Lady of hating transparency.

Not a good accusation when your boss promised to be the “most transparent” President. For the Obama administration’s part, they seemed to disagree with Clinton’s practice on this issue.

“What I can tell you is that very specific guidance has been given to agencies all across the government, which is specifically that employees of the Obama administration should use their official email accounts when they’re conducting official government business,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “However, when there are situations where personal email accounts are used, it is important for those records to be preserved consistent with the Federal Records Act.”

Still, Hillary does have her defenders with Media Matters‘ David Brock accusing the NY Times of “sloppy journalism” in implying that Hillary Clinton email practices broke laws.

“The only named source they have to support this allegation, Jason Banks, who was the highest ranking lawyer in the national archive, said after the piece was published that no law was broken…. So the story is wrong. It’s based on a false premise.”

Brock, who delivered the comments on a recent episode of Morning Joe, was a prominent member of Clinton’s PAC Priorities USA Action, Mediaite added.

At the heart of the Hillary Clinton email scandal is Benghazi. GOP House members have been pushing for all documentation from Clinton on the issue, and continue to run into FOIA roadblocks like this latest. To date, no evidence that would incriminate Clinton has been found.

Do you think the Hillary Clinton email scandal has worsened with the knowledge that she also ran her own computer system for full control of personal emails and archives? Could it hurt her chances of becoming President? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via JStone / Shutterstock.com]