Hillary Clinton’s secret use of a private email account to conduct official State Department business raises questions as to whether the former secretary of state will face charges for what experts say is clear criminal activity.
According to a report in the New York Times, Clinton not only failed to use a government email address during her time at the State Department, but also ignored the Federal Records Act by not ensuring the preservation of the emails from her personal account.
“Under federal law… letters and emails written and received by federal officials, such as the secretary of state, are considered government records and are supposed to be retained so that congressional committees, historians and members of the news media can find them,” the Times wrote.
Following the revelation, countless legal experts from across the spectrum voiced their concern over what many agreed to be nefarious activity.
“It is very difficult to conceive of a scenario – short of nuclear winter – where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business,” Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, told the Times. “I can recall no instance in my time at the National Archives when a high-ranking official at an executive branch agency solely used a personal email account for the transaction of government business.”