State Department press secretary John Kirby is auditioning for a position in the Hillary Clinton White House. He told Fox and Friendsthis morning that Hillary’s use of a private e-mail server “wasn’t against the rules at the time. . . . In fact, it’s still not against the rules, it’s discouraged, given current policy.” That’s a pretty blatant misrepresentation of the State Department’s written rules, which state: “It is the Department’s general policy that normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized [information system], which has the proper level of security control to provide nonrepudiation, authentication and encryption, to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the resident information.” An exception exists “[i]n the absence of a Department-provided secure method,” where there is a “valid business need” and only after considering the security risks from conducting business through private email accounts. That is, you may use private e-mail in exceptional circumstances after considering the risks to disclosure of sensitive State Department information, but it is impossible to see how exclusive use of private e-mail through your own private e-mail would comply with State Department rules.
If Hillary’s server was allowed, John Kirby needs to explain why Hillary Clinton directed State Department diplomatic and consular officials in 2012 to “avoid conducting official State Department business from your personal email accounts” because of security risks, why the State Department inspector general has repeatedly found violations of State Department policies for personal e-mail use by embassy staff (including recently with respect to Caroline Kennedy’s U.S. Embassy to Japan), and why she fired our ambassador to Kenya, at least in part, because of his own use of personal e-mail to conduct official business.
And while he’s at it, a few more questions for Mr. Kirby: Was it against the rules at the time for Hillary Clinton to conceal her e-mail from FOIA requesters and congressional committees? Was it against the rules when she didn’t return any of her official e-mails when separating from public service? Was it against the rules to handle classified information on her private server? The list could go on, but this is getting tiresome.
Update: My original post got John Kirby’s first name wrong. My apologies.