Senior Obama administration staff members knew in 2009 that Hillary Clinton was using a personal email account for her government correspondence, according to emails released by the State Department Tuesday.
The around 3,000 pages of emails show former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel requested Clinton’s email address in 2009, and top strategist David Axelrod also used to private email address to communicate with Clinton during her time as secretary of state.
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Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, has come under fire for using a personal email account on a private email server to conduct government correspondence.
It isn’t clear that the Obama officials knew Clinton’s email address was on a private server.
The emails also show that former president Bill Clinton agreed to be a U.N. special envoy to Haiti without telling her first. “wjc said he was going to call hrc but hasn’t had time,” an email to Hillary Clinton’s staff said, using initials for William Jefferson Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The emails released Tuesday cover March through December of 2009. A federal judge ordered that a batch of the emails be released every 30 days, with all 55,000 pages becoming public by Jan. 29.
Clinton has said she is glad the emails are being released and told NBC News last month that all of the information in them “was handled appropriately.”
The emails also show that longtime political confidant Sidney Blumenthal gave notes for a speech Clinton was set to give in Germany, suggesting ideas and language. A staffer tells Clinton that “the speechwriting crew is taking Sid’s points below and massaging them into a set of remarks.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Tuesday: “These emails however are just the tip of the iceberg and we will never get full disclosure until Hillary Clinton releases her secret server for an independent investigation.”
Separately, the department on Tuesday provided more than 3,600 pages of documents to the Republican-led House committee investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, including emails of Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the time, and former Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan.
The emails released Tuesday night also show that Clinton is not immune to technical troubles with office equipment. She was frustrated on Dec. 3, 2009, by a fax machine, according to the emails.
Clinton is asked by her chief of staff, Huma Abedin to hang up the fax line so a secure fax could be sent; Clinton responds “I thought it was supposed to be off hook to work?”
After some back and forth with the fax still not being received, just pick up phone and hang it up. And leave it hung up,” Abedin instructs the secretary of state to “just pick up phone and hang it up. And leave it hung up” — and Clinton says, “still nothing.”
The emails also show that Clinton was so impressed with the carpets at the Great Hall in China she asked a staffer to get photos for her. The email is titled “Don’t laugh!!”
“Can you contact your protocol friend in China and ask him if I could get photos of the carpets of the rooms I met in w POTUS during the recent trip?” Clinton asked. “I loved their designs and the way they appeared carved. Any chance we can get this?
