Hillary Clinton wiped her email server "clean," permanently deleting
all emails from it, the chairman of a House committee investigating
the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, said Friday.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, said the former
secretary of state has failed to produce a single new document in
recent weeks and has refused to relinquish her server to a third
party for an independent review, as Gowdy has requested.
Clinton's attorney, David Kendall, said Gowdy was looking in the
wrong place. Instead of asking Clinton for the emails, Gowdy should
look to the State Department, which is "uniquely positioned to make
available any documents responsive to your requests," Kendall said.
In a six-page letter released late Friday, Kendall said Clinton had
turned over to the State Department all work-related emails sent or
received during her tenure as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
"The Department of State is therefore in possession of all Secretary
Clinton's work-related emails from the [personal email] account,"
Kendall wrote.
Clinton, a likely Democratic presidential candidate, faced a Friday
deadline to respond to a subpoena for emails and documents related
to Libya.
The Benghazi committee demanded further documents and access to the
server after it was revealed that Clinton used a private email
account and server during her tenure at State.
Gowdy said he would work with House leaders to consider options.
Speaker John Boehner has not ruled out a vote in the full House to
force Clinton to turn over the server if she declines to make it
available.
Here is what the committee's statement said:
"After seeking and receiving a two-week extension from the
Committee, Secretary Clinton failed to provide a single new document
to the subpoena issued by the Committee and refused to provide her
private server to the Inspector General for the State Department or
any other independent arbiter for analysis.
"We learned today, from her attorney, Secretary Clinton unilaterally
decided to wipe her server clean and permanently delete all emails
from her personal server. While it is not clear precisely when
Secretary Clinton decided to permanently delete all emails from her
server, it appears she made the decision after October 28, 2014,
when the Department of State for the first time asked the Secretary
to return her public record to the Department.
"Not only was the Secretary the sole arbiter of what was a public
record, she also summarily decided to delete all emails from her
server, ensuring no one could check behind her analysis in the
public interest.
"In light of the Secretary's unprecedented email arrangement with
herself and her decision nearly two years after she left office to
permanently delete all emails and because the equities at stake
involve not only those of the Select Committee and Congress more
broadly, but also those of the American people and their right to
the full record of her tenure as secretary of State, we will work
with the leadership of the House of Representatives as the Committee
considers next steps.
"But it is clear Congress will need to speak with the former
Secretary about her email arrangement and the decision to
permanently delete those emails."
The Benghazi committee's top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of
Maryland, said the letter from Clinton's attorney "confirms what we
all knew."
That was, he said, "that Secretary Clinton already produced her
official records to the State Department, that she did not keep her
personal emails, and that the Select Committee has already obtained
her emails relating to the attacks in Benghazi."
"It is time for the committee to stop this political charade and
instead make these documents public and schedule Secretary Clinton's
public testimony now," Cummings said.
He said the continued GOP demands for Clinton to turn over her
server "contradicted the investigative standard" for when a
Democratic House oversight panel investigated several officials in
the George W. Bush White House regarding official emails sent from
accounts of the Republican National Committee.