A former top aide to Hillary Clinton said it was not part of his “job” to think about her emails.
Jacob Sullivan participated in a deposition this month, part of a court-ordered discovery related to Clinton’s use of an unauthorized email server during her time as secretary of state. A federal judge ruled that several Obama administration officials would have to answer conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch’s questions about whether Clinton intentionally attempted to evade the Freedom of Information Act by using a nongovernment email system.
Sullivan, who was Clinton’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, said he was not concerned about Clinton’s nongovernment email account.
“Like Secretary Clinton has said herself, I wish she had used a State Department account,” Sullivan said on April 19, according to a transcript. “It wasn’t really part of my job to be thinking about Secretary Clinton’s emails so I don’t think I sort of fell down directly in my job, but do I wish I had thought of it during the time we were at state. Of course. I mean, what human being at this point wouldn’t have thought of that?”
Sullivan said he sometimes used his personal Gmail account for State Department business. However, he said he did not believe he sent classified information to his boss’ unauthorized server, hosted in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Judicial Watch pointed to a classified email he sent on Jan. 26 with the subject line “call sheet,” but Sullivan said he believed it has been subsequently “upclassified.”
Sullivan also said he did not think Clinton used a personal email account to stymie the FOIA process.
The FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of an unauthorized server came to a conclusion during the 2016 presidential election. Former FBI Director James Comey publicly recommended in 2016 that no charges be brought against Clinton, who was then a candidate for president, but admonished Clinton and her colleagues for being “extremely careless” in handling classified information.
One of the main controversies stemming from Clinton’s emails was how a technician managing the server deleted 33,000 emails. The FBI was only able to recover about 5,000 of the emails, which were released in tranches up until earlier this year as part of a Judicial Watch lawsuit. Clinton has said she “never received nor sent any material that was marked classified,” but the FBI found 110 emails did contain classified information.
Clinton has long blamed the FBI’s handling of the emails investigation as a reason for her 2016 loss to President Trump.
