Carter email released; most mundane

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Ashton Carter used his personal email account for government business for nearly a year, until December 2015, when news reports revealed the practice, according to hundreds of Carter email messages released by the Defense Department.

The 1,336 pages of email and attachments from Carter’s personal account were released late Friday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by various news organizations. None contained classified information, and most pertained to routine business such as scheduling and logistics.

The Pentagon long has banned the use of personal email for official business. Carter’s use of his personal email account, starting when he took office in February 2015, was revealed after disclosures in March last year that Hillary Clinton had used a private email account exclusively while she was secretary of state.

When The New York Times was first to report Carter’s use of a personal email account, on Dec. 17, Carter’s aides said his actions were a mistake and that he had quit the practice. The email released Friday show that while he used the personal account much less frequently starting in about September, he did not halt the practice entirely until December. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement that the released emails show that none contained classified information. Cook said all of Carter’s work-related email are preserved within the federal records system.