Hillary Clinton admits private email server was 'a mistake'

Hillary Clinton has apologized for her use of a private “homebrew” email server during her time as US secretary of state, a day after telling the Associated Press that she would not.

In an interview with ABC News’s David Muir which aired on Tuesday, the former secretary of state said: “That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility.”

As recently as Monday, Clinton had refused to apologize for exclusively using a personal email address while secretary of state, telling the Associated Press that she wouldn’t apologize because “what I did was allowed. It was allowed by the State Department. The State Department has confirmed that”.

Clinton again insisted her use of personal email “was allowed”. She told Muir “everyone in the government I communicated with knew I was using personal email but I am sorry that it has raised all of these questions”. However, the former secretary of state expressed her regret and took responsibility “for having made what was not the best decision”.

Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, reiterated her apology in a Facebook post later on Tuesday night.

Yes, I should have used two email addresses, one for personal matters and one for my work at the State Department. Not doing so was a mistake. I’m sorry about it, and I take full responsibility.

The controversy over Clinton’s emails first emerged in March when the New York Times reported that Clinton had exclusively used a personal email address, hdr22@clintonemail.com, to conduct official business while serving as secretary of state. Clinton eventually turned over about half of her emails from that account to the State Department while deleting an additional 32,000 messages, which she characterized as personal.

Her use of this email has sparked ongoing investigations as to whether Clinton sent or received classified email on the personal server. At least 305 emails from her account have been flagged for further review by the intelligence community and 60 additional emails that have been released as a result of public records requests have been redacted to remove classified information.

Clinton’s use of a private email account has long caused political problems for her presidential campaign. After initially refusing to turn her server over to federal investigators, Clinton finally did so in August.

Bryan Pagliano, the State Department employee whom the former secretary of state paid to maintain her server, informed congressional investigators last week that he would invoke the fifth amendment right to avoid self-incrimination if called to testify.