WASHINGTON: The State Department agreed on Thursday to review thousands of messages from a private email account that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used for official government business, a controversy that has generated negative attention for the likely Democratic presidential candidate.

The department announced its action just after midnight, soon after Clinton spoke for the first time about the political firestorm over her use of private emails sent from a private computer server using an Internet address traced back to Clinton’s family home in Chappaqua, New York.

Clinton urged the State Department on her Twitter account to release the documents publicly. “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,” Clinton saidr.

Secretary of State John Kerry said in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that the department “will undertake this task as rapidly as possible in order to make sure that we are dealing with the sheer volume in a responsible way”. Officials have said that Clinton turned over more than 55,000 pages of emails to the department. State spokeswoman Marie Harf warned that the review could “take some time to complete” and officials indicated it could take months.

Revelations that Clinton exclusively used a private email account for official business when she was secretary of state were fast becoming a distraction as she takes steps toward a likely presidential campaign in 2016.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2015

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