Don’t fall for the political spin coming from Hillary Clinton’s political opponents regarding the report out this morning from the State Department Office of Inspector General on the use of email by previous Secretaries of State. We read the report closely, and here are the five things you should know.
1. The OIG report shows that there was long-standing precedent for Secretaries of State and their staff to use non-State.gov email:
“OIG discovered anecdotal examples suggesting that Department staff have used personal email accounts to conduct official business, with wide variations among Secretaries and their immediate staff members. For instance, OIG reviewed the Department email accounts (.pst files) of senior Department employees who served on the immediate staffs of Secretary Powell and Secretary Rice between 2001 and 2008. Within these accounts, OIG identified more than 90 Department employees who periodically used personal email accounts to conduct official business, though OIG could not quantify the frequency of this use.” [State Department Inspector General Report, “Office of the Secretary: Evaluation of Email Records Management and Cybersecurity Requirements,” May 2016, pg 19]
2. The OIG report shows that no Secretary of State used a State.gov email until Secretary Kerry:
“OIG searched selected hard-copy records from her tenure and did not find any evidence to indicate that Secretary Albright used either Department or personal email accounts during that period.” [pg. 20]
“During Secretary Powell’s tenure, the Department introduced for the first time unclassified desktop email and access to the Internet on a system known as OpenNet, which remains in use to this day. Secretary Powell did not employ a Department email account, even after OpenNet’s introduction.” [pg. 21]
“Secretary Rice and her representative advised the Department and OIG that the Secretary did not use either personal or Department email accounts for official business.” [pg. 22]
“Secretary Kerry uses a Department email account on OpenNet and stated that, while he has used a personal email account to conduct official business, he has done so infrequently.” [pg. 25]
3.The OIG report confirms that people throughout the State Department knew Secretary Clinton did not use a State.gov email account:
“OIG did find evidence that various staff and senior officials throughout the Department had discussions related to the Secretary’s use of non-Departmental systems, suggesting there was some awareness of Secretary Clinton’s practices.” [“Evaluation of Email Records Management and Cybersecurity Requirements,” State OIG, pg. 38]
4. The OIG report contains no evidence of a breach of Secretary Clinton’s email. It does, in fact, contain evidence that the State Department was aware and proactive on issues of cyber-security:
“Department implemented a mandatory annual requirement for all Department computer users to take Cybersecurity Awareness training.” [pg. 59]
“Beginning in 2009, the Cyber Threat Analysis Division (CTAD) in DS issued regular notices to Department computer users highlighting cybersecurity threats. CTAD notices addressed BlackBerry security vulnerabilities, citing this device as a weak link in a computer network. CTAD warned that BlackBerry devices must be configured in accordance with Department security guidelines.” [pg. 59]
“DS cybersecurity staff conducted two cybersecurity briefings of S/ES staff, the Secretary’s immediate staff, and Bureau of Public Affairs staff in April and May 2011.” [pg. 34]
“On June 28, 2011, the Department, in a cable entitled ‘Securing Personal E-mail Accounts’ that was approved by the Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security and sent over Secretary Clinton’s name to all diplomatic and consular posts…’” [pg. 34]
5. The OIG report shows Secretary Clinton made public approximately 55,000 pages of work emails, an unprecedented amount. NARA confirmed that the production covered preservation requirements for federal records:
“In December 2014, in response to Department requests, Secretary Clinton produced to the Department from her personal email account approximately 55,000 hard-copy pages, representing approximately 30,000 emails that she believed related to official business.” [pg. 23]
“NARA agrees with the foregoing assessment but told OIG that Secretary Clinton’s production of 55,000 pages of emails mitigated her failure to properly preserve emails that qualified as Federal records during her tenure and to surrender such records upon her departure.” [pg. 23]