Obama Says He Didn’t Know Hillary Clinton Was Using Private Email Address

Obama Says He Didn’t Know Hillary Clinton Was Using Private Email Address

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

MARCH 7, 2015

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Saturday that he had learned only last week that Hillary Rodham Clinton used a private email system for her official correspondence while she was secretary of state.

In an interview with Bill Plante of CBS News, Mr. Obama said the policy of his administration was to “encourage transparency” and that he was pleased that Mrs. Clinton had instructed the State Department to turn over her emails for archiving.

“My emails, the Blackberry I carry around, all those records are available and archived,” Mr. Obama said, according to an excerpt from the interview released Saturday evening. “I’m glad that Hillary’s instructed that those emails about official business need to be disclosed.”

In the portion of the interview that was released, Mr. Obama did not address how he could have avoided noticing that Mrs. Clinton was sending emails from a “clintonemail.com” address throughout the years she served in his administration. Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email system was first reported by The New York Times last week.

Asked how Mrs. Clinton’s email practices met the standards of transparency that he has repeatedly called for, Mr. Obama said that “the fact that she is going to be putting them forward will allow us to make sure that people have the information they need.”

White House officials have said in recent days that some in the West Wing were aware that Mrs. Clinton was not using an official “state.gov” email address for official correspondence. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, has repeatedly said the guidance from administration lawyers is that employees should use their government-issued email addresses for their official business.

But the White House has refused to say whether they believe that Mrs. Clinton violated any administration policies or broke any laws by conducting all of her business with a private email address.

The issue of Mrs. Clinton’s email usage comes as she is preparing to launch a second bid for the presidency in the coming weeks. In an effort to put the criticism behind her, Mrs. Clinton posted on Twitter on Wednesday that she wanted all of her emails released.

“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,” Mrs. Clinton said.