Clinton aides agree to preserve emails after judge’s order

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s campaign has fought back after Republican aspirants criticised her for using a private server for emails while serving as the US Secretary of State, saying the former first lady did nothing wrong and is open to investigation.

The emails were not labeled classified at the time they landed in Clinton’s email, but the ongoing questions about why she used a personal server for State Department business instead of the government computers, have raised questions about whether she may have compromised security as secretary of state.

Under US federal law, officials’ correspondence is considered to be US Government property, and critics have pointed out that Clinton’s use of a private email system was contrary to government policy, as classified information may not have been secured, and also shielded her from oversight. That move followed reports that the Intelligence Community inspector general had discovered that at least two emails maintained in Clinton’s records contained “Top Secret” information.

“For months the Select Committee on Benghazi has called on Secretary Clinton to turn over her server to a neutral, detached third party for independent forensic examination”, Gowdy, R-S.C., said in a statement Tuesday, reported USA Today.

“Clinton finally [surrendering] her email server vindicates Speaker Boehner and Chairman Gowdy’s efforts”. She also claimed that she did not send or receive classified government information on her private email account.

The justice department and the FBI have sought the server and the thumb drive as they investigate how classified information was handled in connection with the account.

McCullough concluded that, in sum, seven emails-nearly one-fifth of the sample he examined-contained classified information at the time they were sent.

Bush was careful not to directly equate Clinton with the actions of Manning and Snowden, but he forcefully argued that he felt Clinton was being reckless with state information while she led the State Department. A few hours after that, Clinton instructed her staff to hand over the server and a pen drive to investigators.

In March, Mrs Clinton said she exchanged about 60,000 e-mails in her four years in Barack Obama’s administration, about half of which were personal and were discarded.

Most seriously, the Inspector General assessed that Clinton’s emails included information that was highly classified-yet mislabeled as unclassified.

As Newsbusters points out, Pelley did want to reassure the viewers that “the e-mails were not classified at the time they were created”. Hillary Clinton deemed those emails work-related, and said she deleted an additional 30,000 messages that were personal. The statement, which carries her signature and was signed under penalty of perjury, echoed months of Clinton’s past public statements about the matter.