State: No Indication that Clinton Used E-mail for Classified Purposes

A former aide says Clinton usually communicated face to face or by phone.

Hillary Clinton, U.S. secretary of state, testifies about the fiscal year 2011 budget request for the Department of State to the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010.
Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

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By Jennifer Epstein

March 3, 2015 at 4:20 PM UTC

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Hillary Clinton’s exclusive use of a personal e-mail address as secretary of state has sparked alarm even among many of her supporters, but current and former State Department officials are defending the practice as they explain how she used e-mail during her four years in the job.

“We have no indication that Secretary Clinton used her personal e-mail account for anything but unclassified purposes,” State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said Tuesday. “While Secretary Clinton did not have a classified e-mail system, she did have multiple other ways of communicating in a classified manner (assistants printing documents for her, secure phone calls, secure video conferences).”