Clinton: 'I can't answer' apparent email discrepancy

Jennifer Jacobs | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Hillary Clinton: No private email server as president Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton talks about transparency at the White House while addressing the issue of her private email server as secretary of state.

DES MOINES — Another apparent discrepancy has arisen in what Hillary Clinton has said about her emails.

When The Des Moines Register asked her about the latest twist in the private server saga on Tuesday, she said she had no new answers.

Just before Clinton sat down for a 105-minute meeting with the Register's editorial board, the Washington Post posted a news story that said the State Department's request for her emails was "prompted entirely by the discovery that Clinton had exclusively used a private e-mail system."

That contradicts what Clinton has been saying, which is that agency officials asked her for her emails as part of a benign, general record-keeping effort to sweep up "everything from other secretaries of state, not just me," as she said Sunday.

After the editorial board meeting, a Register reporter asked Clinton if she could explain the discrepancy between her characterization of why she turned over the emails and the State Department's.

"I don't know that. I can't answer that," Clinton answered. "All I know is that they sent the same letter to everybody. That's my understanding."

The Register told Clinton that the Post was reporting that State Department officials contacted her in the summer of 2014 — a sign that officials had been caught off guard upon discovering she had used a private server to conduct government business. That was at least three months before the agency asked Clinton and three of her predecessors to provide their emails, the Post reported.

"You're telling me something I don't know," Clinton said. "All I know is what I have said. What I have said is it was allowed. The State Department has confirmed that. The same letter went to, as far as I know, my predecessors, and I'm the one who said, 'Hey, I'll be glad to help.'

"But we'll give you additional information as we get it."

Clinton campaign aides said later that what she has said all along is consistent with what transpired — and consistent with the details explained in the Post story.

Clinton responds to article on server Hillary Clinton answers a question from Jennifer Jacobs about an article that disputes previous statements regarding an email server Clinton used while Secretary of State.

"As we have said, Secretary Clinton responded to a request of her and other prior Secretaries of State to assist with the department's record keeping," campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said. "Due to her practice of emailing her colleagues on their state.gov email addresses, 90 percent of her work-related correspondence occurred on the department's email system, and she provided her copies as well, about 55,000 pages total. Everything she has said in answering questions has been consistent with this."