Clinton's Chappaqua Email Server: Convenient, Legal

Written by Lanning Taliaferro (Patch Staff)

At a press conference in New York City yesterday, Hillary Clinton talked about the private email accounts she used as Secretary of State that have sparked so much controversy in the media and on Capitol Hill.

The email server is based at her home in Chappaqua. She plans to keep it.

“The system we used was set up for President Clinton’s office. And it had numerous safeguards. It was on property guarded by the Secret Service. And there were no security breaches,” she said, according to a transcript of the press conference released by Time.

Clinton pointed out she violated no laws or rules. She acknowledged that she could have used two phones.

“First, when I got to work as secretary of state, I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two.

“Looking back, it would’ve been better if I’d simply used a second email account and carried a second phone, but at the time, this didn’t seem like an issue,” she said.

She said the work-related emails have been turned over to the State Department. “What happened in — sorry, I guess late summer, early — early fall, is that the State Department sent a letter to former secretaries of state, not just to me, asking for some assistance in providing any work-related emails that might be on the personal email.

“And what I did was to direct, you know, my counsel to conduct a thorough investigation and to err on the side of providing anything that could be connected to work. They did that, and that was my obligation. I fully fulfilled it,” she said.

She dismissed calls by Republicans and journalists that she allow outside investigators to audit her private emails.

The subtext in all of this furor is the 2016 presidential race.

Take George Pataki, Garrison resident, former mayor of Peekskill and governor of New York, who has been exploring a run. The Chappaqua Daily Voice quotes Pataki critizing Clinton’s judgment over the emails.

Clinton did see an up-side to the controversy.

“I feel like once the American public begins to see the e- mails, they will have an unprecedented insight into a high government official’s daily communications, which I think will be quite interesting,” she said.

PHOTO: wikimedia commons

Subscribe to a free email newsletter and news alerts:

BEDFORD-KATONAH • BRONXVILLE-EASTCHESTER-TUCKAHOE • CHAPPAQUA-MOUNT KISCO • HARRISON • LARCHMONT-MAMARONECK • NANUET • NEW CITY • NEW ROCHELLE • NYACK-PIERMONT • OSSINING-CROTON • PEARL RIVER • PEEKSKILL-CORTLANDT • PELHAM • PORT CHESTER • PLEASANTVILLE-BRIARCLIFF • RIVERTOWNS • RYE • SCARSDALE • SOUTHEST-BREWSTER • TARRYTOWN-SLEEPY HOLLOW • WHITE PLAINS • YORKTOWN-SOMERS