A top Hillary Clinton aide wrote in one of the emails released by the State Department on Wednesday that it would be unwise to advertise that agency officials were using off-the-books email accounts because it might attract hackers.
Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, sent the June 4, 2011 email to Clinton on her personal email account, HDR22@clintonemail.com.
Mills was responding to an email sent by a former State Department official, Ann-Marie Slaughter, who complained that too many State Department officials were using non-official email accounts. That email, too, was sent to Clinton’s email address, which was hosted on her private email server.
Slaughter suggested to Clinton, Mills, and two other Clinton aides, Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, that the State Department needed more federal funding to beef up its technology systems because top-ranking officials were resorting to using their personal email accounts.
Slaughter wrote:
I’m sure you’ve thought of this, but it would be a great time for someone inside or outside to make a statement/ write an op-ed that points out that State’s technology is so antiquated that NO ONE uses a State-issued laptop and even high officials routinely end up using their home email accounts to be able to get their work done quickly and effectively. Further cuts to State’s budget just makes matters much much worse. We actually need more funds to significantly upgrade our technology.
Clinton responded to the suggestion, saying, “I think this makes good sense. How should we follow up?”
Mills chimed in:
I think this is easier to do as a former employee rather than current; second and more significantly,- as someone who attempted to be hacked (yes I was one), I am not sure we want to telegraph how much folks do or don’t do off state mail b/c it may encourage others who are out there.
It is unclear if Mills was stating that she has been the target of a hacking attempt. It is also unclear which email account of hers was targeted. Mills used both a state.gov email account and a Gmail account.
Clinton has said that there is no evidence that her personal email account and private server were ever hacked.
This article has been updated.