Hillary Clinton Asks State Dept. To Release Her Emails To The Public

By Bill Chappell

Published March 5, 2015 at 6:08 AM CST

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, seen here at a U.N. event last March, has been criticized for using a private email account to conduct official business during her four years in the Obama administration.

Responding to concerns over her use of a personal email account to conduct official business while in office, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she wants the public to have access to her emails. The State Department says it will review messages for possible release.

The issue rose to importance earlier this week, after it was revealed that during her entire tenure at the State Department, Clinton used a personal email account — a move that had kept the emails out of the government's control and circumvented archival practices.

Those practices have become much more stringent in recent years. In January, Clinton reportedly provided some 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department, after her advisers reviewed them.

On Wednesday, the House Select Committee on Benghazi "issued a subpoena for all emails related to Libya or Benghazi" sent from Clinton's personal account, as the Two-Way reported.

Clinton announced her willingness to share the emails with a wider audience late Wednesday, saying via Twitter, "I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them."

I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 5, 2015

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf says:

"The State Department will review for public release the emails provided by Secretary Clinton to the Department, using a normal process that guides such releases. We will undertake this review as quickly as possible; given the sheer volume of the document set, this review will take some time to complete."

As we reported Tuesday, it seems that Clinton used a domain named "clintonemail.com" to create the email account. Now The Associated Press says that the server that handled the account has been "traced back to an Internet service registered to her family's home in Chappaqua, New York."

Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that the clintonemail.com domain was created on Jan. 13, 2009 — the same day Clinton began the confirmation process in the Senate.