Report: Clinton Used Home Email Server While at State Dept.
After the New York Times reported yesterday that Hillary Clinton had exclusively used a personal email account while Secretary of State, the Associated Press discovered Wednesday that the account in question was run out of her own email server, registered to her New York home under a pseudonym.
Personal email servers are less secure than than the professional ones upon which most internet users rely, and presumably far less secure than those run by the State Department.
Moreover: “The highly unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official physically running her own email would have given Clinton…impressive control over limiting access to her message archives,” the AP wrote.
Per the AP:
It was unclear whom Clinton hired to set up or maintain her private email server, which the AP traced to a mysterious identity, Eric Hoteham. That name does not appear in public records databases, campaign contribution records or Internet background searches. Hoteham was listed as the customer at Clinton’s $1.7 million home on Old House Lane in Chappaqua in records registering the Internet address for her email server since August 2010.
The Hoteham personality also is associated with a separate email server, presidentclinton.com, and a non-functioning website, wjcoffice.com, all linked to the same residential Internet account as Mrs. Clinton’s email server. The former president’s full name is William Jefferson Clinton.
The Federal Records Act requires that administration officials archive all electronic correspondence. A Clinton spokesperson said Tuesday that Clinton’s emails to other department officials would have been captured and archived by the department on the receiving end, though this explanation does not seem to account for emails Clinton sent outside the department.
Clinton turned over some emails to the Benghazi Select Committee, apparently how her personal email account was first brought to light. The AP said it had been waiting for over a year on a Freedom of Information Act request for some of Clinton’s emails while secretary.
But: “Since Clinton effectively retained control over emails in her private account even after she resigned in 2013, the government would have to negotiate with Clinton to turn over messages it can’t already retrieve from the inboxes of federal employees she emailed.”
[h/t Associated Press]
[Image via screengrab]
