Clinton Email Controversy Raises Questions for State Department, Other Cabinet Secretaries
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Credit: Hisham Ibrahim/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — As lawmakers and reporters continue to ask questions about the controversy swirling around Hillary Clinton’s exclusive use of a personal email address during her time as secretary of state, other political leaders have had to answer similar questions.
On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Carl Woog said that former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel carried two BlackBerrys during his time in office. One device was used for personal communication, and the second was for “official government business.” Hagel received an official .gov email address upon becoming secretary of defense, and Woog says that account “remained active throughout his tenure.”
“He understood the need to keep the two separate and to keep government business on his official e-mail,” Woog added. Still, he acknowledged that on some occasions an email could have been sent to or from the wrong account.
“In such instances, correspondence with other officials would also be retained per policy…e-mails received and created by the secretary of defense on official email are maintained in accordance with the Federal Records Act, DOD and OSD policy and regulations,” Woog concluded.
A separate Defense official told ABC News that in one instance an email released under the Freedom of Information Act coming from Denis McDonough was addressed to multiple cabinet members and included Hagel’s personal Gmail address.
A Justice Department official confirmed to ABC News Tuesday that Attorney General Eric Holder uses his Department of Justice email address for government work. “The address does not use his given name to guard against spam,” the official said, “but is in compliance with FOIA.”
On Tuesday, the State Department released the letter sent to former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice and Clinton requesting copies of any federal records be made available to the department for preservation.
“We recognize that some period of time has passed since your principal served as Secretary of State and that [National Archives and Records Administration] guidance post-dates that service. Nevertheless, we bring NARA guidance to your attention in order to ensure that the Department’s records are as complete as possible,” the letter read. “We ask that should your principal or his or her authorized representative be aware or become aware in the future of a federal record, such as an email sent or received on a personal email account while serving as Secretary of State, that a copy of this record be made available to the department.”
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