Defense Secretary Ash Carter used his personal email account to conduct some portion of his government business during his first months in office, according to Pentagon and White House officials, The New York Times reported late Wednesday.
Even as it was revealed in March that Hillary Clinton had exclusively used her personal email account as secretary of state, Carter, who began his role as secretary of defense in February, continued this practice for at least two months, according to The New York Times, which had obtained 72 of Carter's emails.
In a written statement, Peter Cook, Carter's press secretary, said that the defense secretary believed that using the personal account was a mistake.
“After reviewing his email practices earlier this year, the secretary believes that his previous, occasional use of personal email for work-related business, even for routine administrative issues and backed up to his official account, was a mistake,” said Cook, the Associated Press reported. “As a result, he stopped such use of his personal email and further limited his use of email altogether.”
The Times said it obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request and they were on a variety of work-related topics. The Pentagon said, however, that none of his personal emails contained classified material.
"He does have a personal email account that he uses to correspond primarily with friends and family. Any email related to work received on this personal account, such as an invitation to speak at an event or an administrative issue, is copied or forwarded to his official account so it can be preserved as a federal record as appropriate," said Peter Cook, Pentagon Press Secretary, CNN reported.
He added: "Secretary Carter does not use his personal email or official email for classified material. His team provides him with secure classified information, at times as hard copies."
Earlier this week, an intelligence community review, not yet publicly revealed, determined that two classified emails were deemed "top secret" when they appeared in Hillary Clinton's email inbox and on her personal server, a Fox News report said.
