Hillary Clinton speaks at a women's equality event March 9, 2015 in New York. Two women with global clout -- Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates -- released a sweeping report on Monday showing that women are still far from winning equality in leadership positions. The "No Ceilings Full Participation" report is a review of progress made by women since the 1995 Beijing conference laid out a platform of action for achieving gender equality. The report was released at the start of a 12-day UN conference on women that will focus on women's political power and their influence in economic decision-making. The report was compiled by the Clinton and Gates foundations, the Economist Intelligence Unit and the World Policy Center of the University of California in Los Angeles. AFP PHOTO/Don Emmert (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images) Hillary Clinton speaks at a women's equality event on March 9, 2015 in New York. (credit: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (CBSDC/AP) — Hillary Clinton is finally breaking her silence about the email controversy surrounding her.

Following a speech at the United Nations Tuesday afternoon, Clinton told reporters she “opted for convenience” for only using her private email address while at the State Department because she wanted to use one device for both her personal and work emails.

“I thought it would be easier to carry one device for my work,” Clinton said during a news conference.

The former secretary of state said it “would’ve been better” to use an official government email.

“Looking back, it would have probably been smarter to use two devices, but I have absolute confidence that everything that could be in any way connected to work is now in the hands of the State Department,” Clinton said.

Clinton added that she deleted all of her personal emails from her private account of the more than 60,000 emails in total that were sent and received. About half of them were personal emails, she said. Some of those emails pertained to her daughter Chelsea’s wedding, her mother’s funeral arrangements, and her yoga routine.

“No one wants their personal emails made public and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy,” Clinton said.

Clinton also said that there were no security breaches on her private email server.

Clinton ignored the email issue at a forum Monday while fellow Democrats urged her to speak out about conducting business in a private account while secretary of state. Republicans are ramping up their attention on the issue.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois — the No. 2 Senate Democrat — became the first member of his party’s leadership to call on Clinton to address the issue. “I think it’s only fair to say to Hillary Clinton: ‘Tell us your side of the story,'” Durbin said Tuesday on MSNBC. “What did you put on this personal email?”

Also on Tuesday, the five Democrats on the House panel investigating the fatal 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, asked the State Department to make public some of Clinton’s emails that recently were provided to the committee. They wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry and urged him to make a priority of the 850 pages of documents that the department gave to the panel.

The State Department is reviewing 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton has turned over, and Republicans in Congress have said they plan to review her email practices.

CBS News reports that the State Department have begun of review of Clinton’s emails and that the full release will take “several months.”

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The White House has said that President Barack Obama learned only recently that Clinton was using a privately run server for emailing during her tenure and that she was using private email for all official business. He was aware of the account’s existence before because the two had exchanged emails using it.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Clinton should turn the server itself over to an “independent arbiter.”

The news conference is her first since she left the State Department in early 2013. She gave several TV interviews during her book tour last year, frequently conducts question-and-answer sessions with moderators during speaking engagements and briefly answered questions from reporters at an Iowa event in September.

Clinton is under scrutiny over whether she fully complied with federal laws requiring government officials to preserve written communications involving official business. By using her own email server, traced to an Internet connection registered to her hometown in Chappaqua, New York, she gained more control over her email than she would have had using a government server.

During the past week, the State Department has faced a torrent of questions about Clinton’s email practices and has increasingly referred them to Clinton and her team.

Last week, Clinton said in a Twitter message that she wanted her emails released by the State Department as soon as possible — but did not address why she does not put them out herself. Clinton’s spokesmen and the State Department have said she never received or transmitted classified information on her private account, in which case there would be no concerns that disclosure of her messages could compromise national security.

Clinton is approaching a public decision on a 2016 presidential campaign and remains the leading prospect for the Democratic nomination if she seeks the White House again.

Republicans noted a State Department policy requiring all outgoing employees to turn over job-related materials before leaving. The policy required such employees to sign a “separation statement” declaring they had “surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents” related to official business during their employment.

Priebus said the “fact that Hillary Clinton did not abide by the same rules her State Department employees had to comply with is just the latest example of how the Clintons think the rules don’t apply to them.” It was not immediately clear if Clinton signed the agreement, but State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the secretary of state is supposed to follow such department policies.

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