A federal audit has found Hillary Clinton to be at fault over her use of a private email server for official State Department communications, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
An internal audit by the State Department found that Clinton disregarded guidelines about cybersecurity while in office as secretary of state, and faulted both her, as well as former secretaries of state for their communications practices.
Clinton has been under fire from opponents after it was revealed that she had used a private email server located in the basement of her home for official communications while serving as secretary of state. Critics said that the use of a private server left government secrets vulnerable to hacking and cyberattacks. Clinton has said that she never used the server for classified information.
The report said that Clinton had never sought permission to use her private server, and would not have received it if she had.
While the audit found Clinton at fault for her use of the server, it also noted that the problem was more widespread and long-standing than just during Clinton’s tenure. The report cited “systemic weaknesses” in the office’s communications which went “well beyond the tenure of any one secretary of state,” according to The New York Times. The report examined the tenures of the previous five secretaries of state, as well as Clinton.
Following the audit results, Clinton's press secretary, Brian Fallon, tweeted: "GOP will attack HRC because she is running for President, but IG report makes clear her personal email use was not unique at State Dept." Another statement shared on Twitter by editors from NBC News said that Clinton's use of emails was "consistent…with other secretaries and senior officials at the State Department who also used personal email."
Clinton campaign statement on IG report (via @albamonica) pic.twitter.com/ToTSrogKUH
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 25, 2016
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