Classified email reportedly found in Powell, Rice tenures
WASHINGTON — The State Department watchdog has found that former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the staff of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also received classified national security information on their personal email accounts, a senior House Democrat said Thursday.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server has dogged her presidential campaign, and news that her predecessors in Republican administrations might have received such information on nonsecure servers might be a revelation her campaign will use to blunt the criticism.
The State Department inspector general has told Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., that it has determined that two emails sent to Powell and 10 others sent to Rice’s staff also contained classified information. Powell and Rice were top diplomats under President George W. Bush.
“My concern has been that Republicans are spending-millions of taxpayer dollars singling out Secretary Clinton because she is running for president — often leaking inaccurate information — while at the same time disregarding the actions of Republican secretaries of state,” Cummings said in a statement.
In a statement, Powell said the emails were from his executive assistant. He said they were forwarded messages that two U.S. ambassadors sent to members of the State Department’s staff. “My executive assistant thought I should see them in a timely manner so sent them to my personal account,” he said.
He said that while the department now has said they are “confidential,” both were unclassified at the time.
Georgia Godfrey, chief of staff for Rice, said Rice did not use email as secretary nor have a personal email account. She said the emails in question were sent to Rice’s assistant, “reporting diplomatic conversations and they contained no intelligence information.”
Clinton, meantime, is facing new scrutiny from congressional Republicans as a fourth committee is pressing for information about the handling of government documents, use of personal emails and the response to Freedom of Information requests during her time at the State-Department.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a Jan. 19 letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking for information and documents, citing the panel’s jurisdiction over implementation of FOIA requests.