Last night the New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton had used a personal email address while Secretary of State, meaning portions of her correspondence were potentially not archived by the department per federal regulations.
The discovery was made by the Benghazi Select Committee, to which Clinton submitted about 300 emails as part of its investigation into the 2012 attack on the American consulate in Libya. The revelation of Clinton’s personal email account and the possibility that it portends of an unknown number of emails not captured by the State Department’s system would appear to be the exact sort of treasure trove for which committee head Trey Gowdy (R-SC) was looking.
“I think a lot of people roll our eyes at this Benghazi investigation — like enough already, we’re flogging a horse that is not only dead but buried,” Politico’s foreign affairs correspondent Michael Crowley said on Morning Joe Tuesday. “But suddenly this breathes new life into this Benghazi investigation: ‘look, we’re finding secret private e-mail account! What’s in it?’ That’s terrible news for her.”
RELATED: Times Reporter Breaks Down Clinton Email Story: Feeds into Narrative of ‘Secrecy’
“This was uncovered, basically, by the Benghazi committee,” said Beth Fouhy, MSNBC.com’s senior editor, on Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell last night. “Democrats and opponents about the Benghazi committee have been saying they’re wasting their time. This is just political, this is just redundant. And yet, we have an example of something very significant raised by this committee. So I think it emboldens Republicans to pry away at her and see what else she’s hiding.”
The discovery would also appear to validate critics who saw yet another Benghazi committee as less an investigation than an excuse for GOP to do opposition research into its primary 2016 foe.
Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking Democrat on the Benghazi Select Committee, issued a statement Tuesday morning calling the personal email account itself standard protocol for secretaries of state, but saying the committee should release Clinton’s Benghazi-relevant emails:
Here's Benghazi /oversight committee ranking dem Elijah Cummings on Clinton using her personal email at state pic.twitter.com/OOolCPDSa7
— Kate Nocera (@KateNocera) March 3, 2015
Watch the clip below, via MSNBC:
[Image via Frontpage / Shutterstock.com]
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