2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Guess who initiated the investigation into Clinton's emails? John Kerry [View all]karynnj
(59,503 posts)Email is a reasonably new communication method, so there are not many Secretaries of State who were likely to have communicated much using it as a replacement for written memos. Therefore, those footsteps lead back no further than Powell. Allbright and Warren Chrisopher seem not to have used email - and Allbright said she would not have approved a private server - even as she defended HRC. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/madeleine-albright-hillary-clinton-email-server-214136
Powell says he used PRIMARILY his .gov account. He says that he occasionally used his private account. He said that that use was mainly organizational setting up internal meetings. Rice says that she did not use email for SD work. As far as I have seen, no one has found any email from Rice that contradicts this. (There are stories that speak of some Powell emails and some from top Rice staff being reclassified as classified. Secretary Kerry, who uses his .gov account has his SD staff regularly check his private email to insure that anything that he gets there is archived.
Looking at these three, Kerry is doing what should be done, while using email; Rice seemed to avoid the question of how to use email by not using it. I believe Allbright that she did not use it and, though surprised that Rice didn't, I believe it as there has been a long time where it could have been proven wrong but hasn't been. So, the only peer that is remotely close to HRC's actions is Powell - and he is MILES away.
He mostly used .gov when he used email -- she NEVER did. He also did NOT set up a private server.