Clinton's personal email use not acceptable: State Department

The use of a personal email account run through a private server by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is not acceptable and happened without official's knowledge, the US State Department has told lawmakers.
"I think the message is loud and clear that that is not acceptable. The actions that we've taken in the course of recovering these emails has made it very clear what the responsibilities are with regard to record-keeping," Joyce Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Administration, said in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.
Barr was responding to questions on Clinton's use of private email system during her four-year tenure as the Secretary of State.

Clinton has handed over those emails after deleting her personal emails following a request from the State Department.
"These kinds of things just absolutely undermine the confidence of the American people. It was a bad decision. I hope that we go so far as to say that, if you do this in the future, you get fired," said Senator Thom Tillis.
Tillis alleged that Clinton's email practices were reflective of the broader misuse of records' preservation within the government.

"If the person at the top is doing it, then you can pretty much count on the reality that over some period of time, people at every level of the agency have," he said.

Senator John Cornyn said during the hearing that Clinton's personal email system defeated the very purpose of Freedom of Information Act as it could not be complied.
"What really bothers me is when people plan in a premeditated and deliberate sort of way to avoid the Freedom of Information Act and federal government requirements that require them to make public information available to the public," Cornyn said.
"We are all familiar the news accounts of what happened with former Secretary Clinton," he added.