“I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,” Clinton told reporters during a press conference. “I am certainly well-aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.”
Clinton explained that she used her personal account for convenience, and admitted that it would have been smarter to have used two accounts.
“When I got to work as Secretary of State, I opted for convenience to use my personal e-mail 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,” Clinton stated.
Clinton noted that she took the “unprecedented step” of asking the US State Department to make all of her work related e-mails public, but decided to discard all of her private personal e-mails.
“In going through the e-mails, there were over 60,000 in total sent and received, about half were work-related and went to the State Department, and about half were personal that were not in any way related to my work. I had no reason to save them,” Clinton said.
Clinton said during the press conference, however, that the vast majority of her 60,00 e-mails went to government employees, which means that they were preserved on the system at the State Department.
Last week, Clinton asked the State Department to release the e-mails during her tenure as Secretary of State amid allegations that she used her personal e-mail address for official, department-related business.
The State Department said it was reviewing Clinton’s e-mails, and will make them public as soon as possible.
