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Editorial: Private emails skirt accountability for Clinton and Congress

Tue., March 10, 2015

The biggest problem with Hillary Rodham Clinton using a private email account as secretary of state is that it probably wasn’t illegal.

Congress could make this clearly against the law, but it didn’t the last time the issued flared. Now it has another opportunity.

Clinton has been largely silent since the New York Times reported that she sent emails from a private server during her entire tenure as secretary of state. There is no good excuse for a public official to systematically elude public accountability. Her account was set up in 2009, or two years after Democrats pummeled Bush administration officials for using private email.

The 2007 scandal emerged from the U.S. Justice Department’s controversial firing of eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons. When a congressional oversight committee requested emails, it discovered that millions had been sent from private accounts and subsequently deleted.

Clinton knew this was a controversial practice, and she proceeded anyway. Congress became complicit when it didn’t act on its “outrage.”

The abuse of email isn’t new. Governors and other state officials routinely use private accounts, according to an Associated Press review. When Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, he used a private account. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo allows officials in his administration to routinely delete emails after 90 days, despite protests from open government groups. Furthermore, Congress has exempted itself from the Freedom of Information Act, so members’ emails are shielded from public view.

So as you hear the political rhetoric in the coming days, keep an eye on whether lawmakers actually do anything to enhance the transparency they purport to hold dear.

Public officials are provided email accounts, and that’s all they should be using for official business. This makes retrieval and archiving easier. Many politicians have gotten into trouble for using public accounts for private business or for campaigning. The prohibitions in public records law are clear.

But lawmakers have created murkier waters when it comes to conducting official business from private accounts. It’s time to get serious about secret emails and federal record-keeping in general. A 2008 study by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found that agencies routinely turned down requests that should’ve been granted under the law. General incompetence and chaotic record-keeping were cited.

Clinton owes the public an explanation for using a private email account. Does she believe she did no wrong? Did she not concern herself with breaches of security? As a likely presidential candidate, her answers could provide an important glimpse into her views on open government and accountability.

By the same token, if Congress and statehouses fail to explicitly close this loophole, they should be viewed as co-conspirators.