Hillary Clinton and her quest for the 2016 presidential nomination may have hit another speed bump as revelations about her use of a personal email account continue to surface.
According to the Weekly Standard , Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the committee investigating the case of Benghazi, Hillary has significant gaps in her email account. Clinton has been given the option of choosing what she does and does not want to hand over for scrutiny and investigation.
By Gowdy’s account, there are “gaps of months and months and months” in the trove of Clinton emails, though.
In an interview on Sunday’s Face the Nation , Gowdy described a set of circumstances wherein the location of Hillary on a particular day in history (sometimes significant) and corresponding missing emails sets up a suspicious backdrop for her version of events in general.
“There are gaps of months and months and months,” said Gowdy on the news talk show. “If you think to that iconic picture of her on a C-17 flying to Libya — she has sunglasses on, she has her handheld device in her hand, we have no e-mails from that day.”
Gowdy said that Clinton has actually not provided any emails from that entire trip, which “strains credibility,” given the context of where she was going. He said the questions over her email and what is contained in the missing messages is largely about credibility and accountability to Congress.
He placed blame squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. State Department for “allowing this arrangement” with Clinton, even as he lambasted the enormous gaps in information she has provided thus far.
“… with respect to the president, it’s not up to Secretary Clinton to decide what’s a public record and what’s not.”
Also on Face the Nation , U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell said that he’s concerned about the security of whatever emails were coming and going to Hillary’s personal account.
“I am a little bit worried about the security of those emails,” McConnell said. “They would have been prime targets for cyber attacks.” He added that questions over the legality of Clinton doing part of her job using personal email are being looked into and would be clarified in coming weeks.
Until legal parameters are determined, it will likely not be possible to compel Hillary to turn over every single email message, since it is her private account.
Hillary Clinton was U.S. Secretary of State for the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013 and is considered to be one of the best potential Democratic frontrunners for a 2016 presidential nomination.
[Image via U.S. Department of Defense]