Hillary Clinton
Politics

Will the Clinton Email Controversy Effect Her Campaign?

In the heat of the 2016 presidential race, Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton has been involved in an email controversy involving the use of a private email accounts. It was first brought to attention in 2011 by Ann-Marie Slaughter, the State Department’s Director of Policy Planning.

Slaughter suggested Clinton release a statement regarding how the, “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.”

According to The New York Times, Clinton had used her personal email account, “clintonemail.com,” to contact General David H. Petraeus and the commander of the United States Central Command. These emails were said to have been sent in January and February of 2009, the first two months of her term as Secretary of State.

According to CNN, it seems the emails between Clinton and Petraeus do not contain any classified information, but an official decision has not yet been made. Clinton told NBC that, “There was a transition period. You know, I wasn’t that focused on my email.”

The New York Times has stated that thirty thousand emails have been deleted, and 30,000 have been sent to the State Department for archiving. CNN gathered that Clinton willingly turned over her work related emails but kept the ones she deemed private, however the FBI has been able to recover the personal emails from Clinton’s private server. The FBI is currently working to recover the emails that have been deleted to determine whether or not classified information was put at risk.

According to CNN, most of the emails belong to an email server Clinton claims she no longer has access to. However, the email chain has messages on a private server she used while in office as Secretary of State. The chain begins on January 10, 2009 and ends on February 1, 2009.

Last week, CNN reported that another round of Clinton’s emails were released by the state department. These emails are from 2010 and 2011 and amount to 3,849 total. Overall, Clinton’s lawyers have given the State Department 55,000 pages of emails thus far.
According to CNN, a federal judge has ordered for new emails to be released monthly; but first they must be reviewed by United States intelligence agencies to ensure that no sensitive information is released to the public. Gregory Bordelon, lecturer of political science said, “Since standard protocol for Secretary of State before Clinton personal emails were allowed, it didn’t present a legal issue. There really is no standing for an FBI investigation.

However that is ingenuous to believe that legal process is relevant in the current 24 hour political news cycle.” CNN stated that in the latest batch of emails, 215 documents have been labeled as classified. The process in upgrading a document or email to “classified” is quite complex; when a certain department is mentioned in an email, that email must be sent to the department for it to be cleared. If the department does not clear it, the document or email becomes classified and is not released to the public.

The Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy has certainly been a saga, and Clinton has made several attempts to apologize and save her reputation. She has publicly apologized, and on ABC News she stated, “I take responsibility and I am trying to be as transparent as I possibly can,” and insists that she used her personal email for, “convenience.”

However, CNN reported that she has admitted that in retrospect she should have used two separate email accounts, but ensures the public and State Department that she, “never sent nor received any information that was classified at the time it was sent.”

Dr. Joseph Patten Chair of the Political Science Department said, “This came to light with General Petraeus who got in trouble with sharing classified information with those who didn’t have access to it. This will have to be investigated and have more clarity on what types of classified documents might have been compromised. There is no agreement between Clinton’s supporters and opposers on what this case can conclude. It’s a little premature to pass judgement.”

Junior political science and psychology major, Mallory Inselberg, said, “I don’t think it matters whether you think it should affect her standing in the presidential race or not, because it will no matter what. I don’t think it will too much, because everyone is focusing on the absurdities on what Trump is saying so I think it’s on the back-burner. But if she gets farther, it definitely will affect her standing.”

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