Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters during a rally at La Escuelita School in Oakland, California, on May 6. Clinton: I didn't tell anyone to hide that I was using private email

Hillary Clinton on Tuesday rejected the idea that she instructed anyone at the State Department to keep quiet about her private email server, after an inspector general report released last week found that some staff were told to hush up about the unusual setup.

The report cited two Information Resources Management staffers who expressed concerns with their department boss in 2010. One staff member recalled that the director said Clinton’s personal email system had been reviewed and approved by legal staff “and that the matter was not to be discussed any further,” according to the State IG report.


But the report also said it found no evidence that legal staff had actually signed off on the system.

Clinton responded incredulously to the notion that her email setup was a closely guarded secret during a phone interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes.

“I do not know who that person is or, you know, what that person might have said because it’s not anything that I am aware of,” Clinton said. “I emailed with hundreds of people, and I emailed department officials directly with my email as other secretaries have done.”

“I certainly never instructed anyone to hide the fact I was using a personal email,” Clinton said, laughing toward the end of her sentence. “It was obvious to hundreds of people, visible to the many people that I was emailing throughout the State Department and the rest of the federal government.”

Clinton, whose campaign didn’t cooperate with the inspector general investigation, also said that no interview with the FBI for its investigation into her private email server has been scheduled yet.