Hillary For America spokesperson Karen Finney was unable to say whether or not former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would force government employees to use a government email account under a potential second Clinton administration.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, Finney attempted to dodge Melber’s question of whether she would have all government employees use such an account, with her telling the host that she has “had that specific conversation with her.” She did add at the end that she would probably not change rules put into place by President Barack Obama in 2014.
ARI MELBER: Looking forward Karen, do you think if Secretary Clinton is elected president, will she require everyone in government to simply use only a government e-mail address for government business.
KAREN FINNEY: Well, it’s my understanding, actually, that since she left, that is now the current policy. but if we want to have this race based on, you know, what are the e-mail policies and what are the retention policies, we can have that conversation.
MELBER: I mean, I’m trying to have that conversation. What I’m asking you is what her rule would be. There are current laws that folks sometimes come in to the White House seeking to change and others they seek to hold. The reason this has become a debate is because she had a practice that was different than most government employees.
FINNEY: Well, actually, that’s not quite true. Colin Powell actually had a personal e-mail that he used. And, again, I think what people forget is that a secretary of state has multiple means of communicating classified information. Those are cables, those are phone calls, those are meetings. So the assumption that there was classified information being communicated on this Blackberry I think has been shown in these e-mails to be just simply untrue. Now it is the case that after the fact, some of the e-mails were deemed as confidential and held back by the State Department. But at the time they were sent, they were not classified and there was no way to know that would change in the future.
MELBER: Just to repeat the question though. would she require government employees to use government e-mail for government business?
FINNEY: I haven’t had that specific conversation with her. But as I have said, in 2014, the rules — I think President Obama actually changed the rules. I don’t expect that she would change those any differently.