Rep. Gowdy questions State Department Official on Hillary Clinton Emails (C-SPAN)

now recognize the gentleman from South Carolina mr. Gowdy Thank You mr. chairman good morning to all of our witnesses miss bar you previously testified that the former secretaries email arrangement with herself was not acceptable those are the words you use not acceptable what made it not acceptable to you I thought that I know that in my oral statement today I was talking about it our backlogs were not acceptable but I think that in my former testimony that was being asked if I thought in general it was okay to use if any employee would use a private email account right no you're exactly right it was in response to a question when you testified before the Senate and I'm sure the circumstances were it was it okay to exclusively use personal email with which to conduct public business and you use the phrase not acceptable so I'm not asking about the backlog I'm asking about the exclusive use of personal email with which to conduct public business what makes it not acceptable what we want to make sure that we do under the federal Records Act is to capture official records so that they are available to be history of what we do and how we come to those decisions we don't like for records to be separated from the agency so we were very pleased to have these records back in our possession so that they're part of our collection and that we can make them available to the public do you recall why former Secretary Clinton said she availed herself of a personal server and used exclusively personal email do you recall the explanation given or have you been given an explanation for why she went that route I can't speak to that authoritative Lee my understanding is that the secretary said that she did it as a matter of convenience and you know what know that personally well that's my understanding too in part because that's what she said I I guess my next question would be if it was solely for convenience why not return the records the day you separated from the State Department I have no information on it has she provided any explanation for why she retained care custody and control of those public records for almost two years after she separated I'm not aware of that sir do you know what do you know what prompted the former secretary to return those public records to the public domain we sent a letter to Secretary Clinton as well as to Secretary's Rice Powell and Albright and asked them if they had any records that they might have that might have been generated on non Department systems that should be part of our official records how were you able to comply with for your request and that almost two-year interim between the time you wrote the letter and the time that she retained care custody control of all of those public records sir emails are not the only records right but it's part of the record so if you received a four-year request that would have included emails how would you have been able to comply with that four-year request given the fact that you had neither care custody nor control of those records well we would still search all of our records and we would still look at things like cables decision memos other types of documents that we keep to provide a record of what we do agendas so you would have given what you had but you would have made no representation that what you provided was complete because necessarily it could not have been complete because you didn't have the full panoply of public records well we always look at what we have right you can't give it if you don't have it which then raises the next question I have I woods I was listening to my friend from Maryland and my friend from Virginia make note of the fact that former secretary did return emails what guarantee can you give my fellow citizens that what you have now is the complete public record have you been through all of her records to determine what's public and what's private we are processing them now no we have not completed your your processing what was originally on the server are you processing what she provided to you we are processing what she provided to us do you know what mechanism she would have gone through to determine herself what was public record and what was private or what may have been a mixed use do you know who made that initial determination for the former secretary she has told us that she erred on the side of inclusion it so did she tell you that she personally reviewed all of the emails or did she retain counsel to do so I'm not aware of whether she personally did it or if she retained counsel well I thank you very much my question is I'm over time suffice it to say I have a number of additional questions in this area and perhaps at some point I'll be able to ask them tell me what you think for a moment I'm out of time but if the Chairman says I'm not then I'm not just one question mr. Barr what emails are you processing for secretary Powell secretary and secretary rice you said you're processing emails oh for Clinton yeah I mean yeah but what emails are you processing for secretary Powell and mrs. Jimmy secretary Powell any no are you watching for any for secretary rice no all right thank you I'll recognize the gentleman from North Carolina for five minutes Thank You mr. chairman I would like to yield my time to the gentleman from South Carolina thank my friend from North Carolina miss Barr I appreciate you talking with me earlier I want to pick back up where we were I was seeking some level of assurance from you to the extent that you could give one that what was produced to the State Department did in fact represent the full universe of what would be public records and again I have no interest in in private documents I really could care less I am interested in making sure the whole public universe is complete so what assurance can you give the public that that State Department has everything that would be considered a public record from her tenure as Secretary of State we have she has assured us that she gave us everything she had and like we do with other federal employees we have to depend on them to provide that information to us so we'll have the documents and you know we've accepted her assurance that she's given us everything that she had that would should be a part of our official records well you mentioned other federal employees which got me wondering and I wrote down a list of some of the other cabinet level of folks that I have worked with him in my time here Attorney General Holder I did he have his own server are you asking me I'm asking whoever can answer I could let you know that Attorney General Holder used in a fishel DOJ account he did about a new attorney general Lynch she have a personal servant is what same as well she's using an official DOJ account what about what about President Obama is there any indication but because if you're gonna pursue the theory of convenience I can't really imagine a busier person on the globe than President Obama did he have his own personal server mr. Barr I have no knowledge well well the reason I'm asking this because you you said that you're doing it the exact same way you would with any other public official and and my point is because of this arrangement that the former secretary held with herself you're not in a position to do it the same as you would with any other public official because Vice President Biden and President Obama don't have their personal attorneys going through their emails to decide what to return and what not to return I assume in your position is an apolitical a non-political unbiased position am I correct in that assumption yes sir and and I believe the Department of State has an inspector general am i right yes and we've asked the inspector general to look into some of these issues we are cooperating with them I know yeah and I didn't mean to suggest otherwise do you know who nominated the current Inspector General I I don't have that information at my fingertips but I can get back to you you don't have to because it was President Obama do you know who control the Senate when he was confirmed do you know what the vote was it was unanimous no I I was I knew you were gonna give me that information it was unanimous those may be the only questions I can answer today but I do know the answer of those to President Obama nominated the current inspector general and he was unanimously confirmed by a Senate controlled at the time by Democrats which makes me think that that he like you is a is a neutral detached arbiter who is solely interested in separating what should be in the public domain from what should be purely personal so why not let the Inspector General look at all the records just to make absolutely sure and that way we're not in a position of having to take someone's lawyer's word for it why not do that well it was my understanding that our you're talking about the email collection not that entire process no I'm talking about I mean you have been put in the position of having to take a lawyer's word that you have all the public records and perhaps it's just the cynicism of actually being a lawyer I'm just wondering who with a fiduciary duty to the public can make sure that the public record is complete instead of the former secretary hiring an attorney to do it why can't the attorney that works for all of us well I can't the Inspector General do it so you're asking me why can't the Inspector General make the determination of whether we received all of the emails yes I really can't speculate on that well I'm out of time hopefully I'll get some more time and we can we can speculate together after that I yield back to the Chairman

Channel: C-SPAN

Views: 189,567

Keywords: Trey Gowdy (U.S. Congressperson), Politics (TV Genre), Hillary Clinton Email Controversy, United States Department Of State (Government Agency), United States House Of Representatives (Governmental Body), Hillary Rodham Clinton (U.S. Congressperson)

Id: 1qo4aZOVIbQ

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 03 2015