Hillary Clinton responded to the controversy brewing around her use of her personal email account as Secretary of State Wednesday, suggesting she wants complete transparency.
I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 5, 2015
The controversy around the presumptive Democratic nominee’s email account began Monday when the New York Times broke the story about her exclusively using her personal email account during her time as Secretary of State.
Cable news and digital media have seized on the questionable email use, with many noting regulations that government emails have to be preserved. Conservative critics are jumping on the fact that not all of her emails were turned over while she was still at the State Department, only made completely available by Clinton last year.
A Clinton spokesperson responded by pointing out she’s not the first person in her position to use personal email.
“Like Secretaries of State before her, she used her own email account when engaging with any Department officials. For government business, she emailed them on their Department accounts, with every expectation they would be retained. When the Department asked former Secretaries last year for help ensuring their emails were in fact retained, we immediately said yes. Both the letter and spirit of the rules permitted State Department officials to use non-government email, as long as appropriate records were preserved. As a result of State’s request for our help to make sure they in fact were, that is what happened here. As the Department stated, it is in the process of updating its record preservation policies to bring them in line with its retention responsibilities.”
A recent Wall Street Journal report said Clinton will announce her run for 2016 in April.