Tuesday during CNN corespondent Brianna Keilar’s exclusive interview with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State doubled down on her excuse that the reason she used a private email account to do government business was because that enabled her to use one device despite multiple media reports she used an iPad for email as well.
Partial transcript as follows:
“Well, let’s start from the beginning, everything I did was permitted. there was no law. there was no regulation, there was nothing that did not give me the full authority to decide how I was going to communicate. Previous secretaries of state have said they did the same thing. And people across the government knew I used one device. Maybe it was because I am not the most technically capable person and wanted to make it as easy as possible.”
“I’ve never had a subpoena, there’s nothing — again, let’s take a deep breath here, everything I did was permitted by law and regulation,” she continued. “I had one device, when I mailed anybody in the government, it would go into the government system. Now, I didn’t have to turn over anything. I chose to turn over 55,000 pages because I wanted to go above and beyond what was expected of me. Because I knew the vast majority of everything that was official already was in the State Department system. And now I think it’s kind of fun, people get a real-time behind the scenes look at what I was e-mailing about, and what I was communicating about.”
“This is being blown up with no basis in law or in fact. That’s fine, I get it. This is being in effect used by the Republicans in the Congress. Okay, but I want people to understand what the truth is. And the truth is, everything I did was permitted. And I went above and beyond what anybody could have expected in making sure that if the State Department didn’t capture something, I made a real effort to get it to them. And I had no obligation to do any of that. So let’s set the record straight. And those 55,000 pages will be released over the course of this year, people can again make their own judgment.”
“I turned over everything I was obligated to turn over, and then I’m gone. People delete their personal e-mails, whatever e-mails they have on a regular basis. I turned over everything that I could imagine. Now, sitting in a meeting in the State Department and asking for iced tea may not rise to the level of negotiating peace. I went above and beyond. That’s why there’s 55,000 pages of my e-mails. And so I think people have an interesting time behind the scenes. And all I can tell you is that the law, the regulation did not in anyway stand in my way of being permitted to do what I did. And as I said, prior secretaries of state, I mean, Secretary Powell has admitted he did exactly the same thing. I think both Secretary Powell and I are viewed as public servants we do our very best to serve our country. He had such a distinguished record, you know, I have served my country as well. We both did the same thing. Years have passed, so he clearly doesn’t have anything left. I did everything I could to make sure people got anything that was related that I had.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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