On March 2nd, the New York Times published a story reporting that Hillary Clinton had not used an official Department of State email account during her time as Secretary of State. Instead, Clinton and some staff members used a private email server. As OTG director Patrice McDermott told The Hill, “What she did was not technically illegal…[but] it was highly inappropriate and it was inappropriate for the State Department to let this happen.”
To clarify much some of the confusion surrounding the story and the federal government’s approach to managing and preserving email generally, we have rounded up a set of the records management policies in play—from the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) guidance on management of email, to the recent update of the Presidential and Federal Records Act. These resources provide answers to many frequently asked questions:
