Sen. Rand Paul on Hillary Clinton’s emails: ‘Convenience’ should not ‘trump national security’
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is calling for an independent investigation into Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of a nongovernmental email address while conducting business as secretary of state.
Paul does not buy Clinton’s explanation that she considered the personal email address “a matter of convenience” and “thought it would be easier to carry just one device.”
“I don’t think convenience should trump national security,” Paul said in an interview on the “Today” show. “She also has admitted in other interviews that she has an iPhone and a BlackBerry, so she does carry two devices.”
The libertarian politician said several times throughout the interview that the presumptive 2016 presidential candidate’s trustworthiness is now in question.
Clinton, who broke her silence on the controversy at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, says she is confident that there were no security breaches and that she did not send any classified information from her personal address.
“I’m not sure that can be trusted, since we can’t trust her to do the right thing the first time,” Paul told TV host Matt Lauer. “And the thing about classified information, we’re not talking about transmitting necessarily a document that’s classified, but many of her conversations would be classified.”
Clinton ran all her emails through a private server that was apparently set up on her property in Chappaqua, N.Y.
The potential Democratic front-runner says she turned over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department but discarded personal correspondence about yoga routines, family vacations, the wedding of her daughter, Chelsea, and her mother’s funeral arrangements.
But critics wonder if Clinton accurately distinguished between professional and personal matters — particularly as they relate to the 2012 Benghazi attack.
“There is a period of time that she was traveling to Libya that we are concerned about her emails, and those aren’t out there, so did she delete those?” Paul said.
Also on Wednesday, the Associated Press filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the State Department to force the release of Clinton’s emails during her time as secretary of state.
“The press is a proxy for the people, and AP will continue its pursuit of vital information that’s in the public interest through this action and future open records requests,” said Karen Kaiser, general counsel for the wire service.
AP says the legal action comes after the news service had exhausted other options; repeated requests for the documents filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act went unfulfilled.
