"Had Secretary Clinton known of any concerns about her email setup at the time,she would have taken steps to address them," John Podesta writes. Top Clinton official spins email 'mistake' to supporters

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email address and a personal server was a "mistake," her campaign's top official wrote in a letter to the Democratic front-runner's top supporters over the weekend.

And Clinton has repeatedly said it was a "mistake," campaign chairman John Podesta wrote, in a 600-word missive intended to set the record straight and keep supporters calm as it faces a strong last-second challenge from Bernie Sanders while looking ahead to Donald Trump in the general election.


"Since last year, Secretary Clinton has said her use of a personal email server was a mistake. And while there have been ongoing reviews of this matter, the completion of the Inspector General’s examination gets us one step closer to resolving this," Podesta wrote in the memo, first reported by BuzzFeed News on Monday night. "While the rules surrounding use of a personal email account were clarified after Secretary Clinton left office – and the Inspector General recommends the State Department take measures to even further clarify them – the Secretary has once again acknowledged this was a mistake. And she has taken responsibility for that mistake – including in many interviews she’s done since the report’s release."

The memo from Podesta is the latest instance of the Clinton campaign combating the narrative around the former secretary of state's email configuration, despite the latest IG report out last Wednesday, which determined she had not complied with federal record-keeping laws.

"Had Secretary Clinton known of any concerns about her email setup at the time," Podesta wrote, "she would have taken steps to address them."

But the IG report noted two employees in the Office of Information Resources Management who raised concerns Clinton's personal email account and were subsequently silenced by their superiors.

Podesta wrote that Clinton was unaware during her time as secretary of state that her emails to officials at State.gov addresses were not automatically preserved and that she "believed she was following the practices of other Secretaries and senior officials."

In an email exchange with her aide Huma Abedin, however, Clinton was advised that her homebrew setup was causing her messages to get caught in the department's spam filters.

“In November 2010, Secretary Clinton and her Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations discussed the fact that Secretary Clinton’s emails to Department employees were not being received,” the IG report noted. “The Deputy Chief of Staff emailed the Secretary that “we should talk about putting you on state email or releasing your email address to the department so you are not going to spam.” In response, the Secretary wrote, “Let’s get separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible.”

"While we understand the questions about Secretary Clinton’s email practices, we are confident that voters will look at the full picture of everything she has done throughout her career," Podesta continued. "We have faith in the American people. They know we have to be focused on solutions that will make a real difference in people’s lives."

Clinton did not cooperate with the State IG report, though she has said she will speak to the FBI in its separate investigation into whether the private server sustained security breaches.