Common Cause Calls on Hillary Clinton to Answer Email Questions

How Clinton Handles the Controversy Will Set the Tone for Any Future Public Service

Hillary Rodham Clinton owes the American public a full and immediate explanation for her decision to use a private email account to conduct all of her official business during her tenure as secretary of state, Common Cause said today.

“Whether Secretary Clinton’s use of personal email was legal or not, it was a far cry from openness and transparency and what the American public deserves,” said Common Cause President Miles Rapoport.

“Mrs. Clinton has an opportunity this afternoon to correct this practice and set a new tone for how she will handle transparency in her soon-to-be-announced presidential campaign and potential future public service,” Rapoport said.

At her news conference, Mrs. Clinton also should provide a full accounting of the work of the advisers who reportedly reviewed her emails after she left office and decided which would be forwarded to the State Department and which she would retain, Rapoport said. “Who were these advisers? What criteria were they given for turning over or withholding emails? How many emails were judged ‘personal’ by Mrs. Clinton or her advisers and not included in the 55,000 pages ultimately forwarded to the State Department archives? We need to have a review process that the public can have real confidence in.

“Mrs. Clinton has a challenge here, and we all have an opportunity,” Rapoport added. “While we have a Freedom of Information Act and other laws and regulations designed to promote transparency throughout government, too much of the public’s business remains shrouded. Perhaps the bipartisan calls for Mrs. Clinton to account for her actions can be channeled into bipartisan support for more transparency elsewhere.”