Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will not turn over her private server to an independent third party since she already "wiped it clean" and erased all of its contents, according to the Republican chairman of a House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks.
Friday was the deadline for Clinton to respond to a congressional subpoena for all emails related to Libya and Benghazi, but her lawyer informed Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., that Clinton already turned over all work-related emails. Clinton then "unilaterally decided to wipe her server clean and permanently delete all emails" from it, reported The Washington Times.
Clinton's lawyer added, "The Department of State is therefore in possession of all Secretary Clinton's work-related emails from the (personal email) account," reported The Associated Press.
Gowdy wrote in a statement, "Not only was the secretary the sole arbiter of what was a public record, she also summarily decided to delete all emails from her server ensuring no one could check behind her analysis in the public interest."
Clinton refused to use a government-issued email during her four years as secretary, and instead conducted all federal business from an insecure personal email address and private server run from her home. She admitted during a press conference earlier this month that, without independent oversight, she deleted about 30,000 emails from her account that she deemed personal in nature. Clinton said she then turned the remaining business-related emails over to the State Department for public record.
While it's not clear exactly when Clinton deleted her emails, Gowdy said it appears to have happened after the State Department asked her in October to turn over all emails related to her tenure as secretary of state. Some critics point out that if Clinton did indeed delete her emails after the initial request to turn them over, she could be guilty of purposefully destroying evidence and U.S. government property - evidence that was likely politically-damaging and could derail a succesfful bid for the White House.
"In light of the Secretary's unprecedented email arrangement with herself and her decision nearly two years after she left office to permanently delete all emails and because the equities at stake involve not only those of the Select Committee and Congress more broadly, but also those of the American people and their right to the full record of her tenure as secretary of State, we will work with the leadership of the House of Representatives as the Committee considers next steps," Gowdy said. "But it is clear Congress will need to speak with the former Secretary about her email arrangement and the decision to permanently delete those emails."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus condemned Clinton on Saturday for wiping her server clean and seemingly permanently deleting all correspondence.
"Even Nixon didn't destroy the tapes," Priebus said in a statement, reported The Hill.
"It's imperative an independent third party review the server immediately. Unless Mrs. Clinton went to extreme lengths to wipe this server, there are ways to recover this data," Priebus said.
