Using private email, Hillary Clinton foiled record requests

Washington: In 2012, congressional investigators asked the State Department for a wide range of documents related to the attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. The State Department had not searched the email account of former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton because she had maintained a private account, which shielded it from such searches, department officials acknowledged on Tuesday.NextMAds It was only last month that the House committee appointed to investigate Benghazi was provided with about 300 of Clinton’s emails related to the attacks. Clinton’s aides on Tuesday sought to play down the significance of her exclusive use of a personal email account for State Department business. In December, AP said its FOIA requests for records related to Clinton’s tenure at the State Department, the oldest of which was submitted in March 2010, were not answered. Adrienne Elrod, a spokeswoman for Correct the Record, a pro-Clinton group, called the issue of Clinton using personal email “manufactured controversy.” In a written statement, the National Archives said it had “reached out to the State Department to ensure that all federal records are properly identified and managed in accordance with the Federal Records Act and that controls and procedures are in place to manage records effectively in the future.” Clinton’s aides have said her use of private email was not out of the ordinary, pointing to the fact that former secretary of state Colin Powell also used a personal email account, before the current regulations went into effect.