'Several Months' Until Clinton Emails Released

ByJONATHAN KARL ABCNews logo
Thursday, March 5, 2015

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday asked the State Department to release the emails she sent from her personal account during her term as Secretary of State. But a State Department spokesperson told ABC News it will be "several months" before the emails are released, because the department will need time to review the emails and remove sensitive and personal information.

"I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible," Clinton wrote on Twitter Wednesday night..

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf, in a statement that followed Clinton's tweet, said the department is focused on reviewing Clinton's emails.

"The State Department will review for public release the emails provided by Secretary Clinton to the Department, using a normal process that guides such releases," the statement reads. "We will undertake this review as quickly as possible; given the sheer volume of the document set, this review will take some time to complete."

Clinton's team submitted 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department, but an unknown number of emails that do not pertain to work will not be turned over, a Clinton aide told ABC News.

The storage of Clinton's email has come under scrutiny after a New York Times report revealed she used a personal, non-governmental email address to conduct official business as secretary of state. The Associated Press reported Tuesday Clinton used a personal server based in her New York home to host her emails.

Clinton, 67, used only one email address during her tenure, her attorney David Kendall wrote in an email to the House Select Committee, which is tasked with investigating the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi,Libya. The committee sent subpoenas to the State Department Wednesday requesting all of Clinton's communications related to Libya.

"The Select Committee on Benghazi today issued subpoenas for all communications of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton related to Libya and to the State Department for other individuals who have information pertinent to the investigation," Jamal Ware, communications director for the committee, wrote in a statement. "The Committee also has issued preservation letters to internet firms informing them of their legal obligation to protect all relevant documents."

The email account that Clinton used while working at the State Department was hdr22@clintonemail.com and was traced to a server based out of Chappaqua, New York, where she and former President Bill Clinton have a home, ABC News confirmed.

ABC News also learned that another email domain, wjcoffice.com, which used the former president's initials as their descriptor, was also based out of Chappaqua. That domain was registered by an individual called Eric Hoteham, the same name used to register the clintonemail.com domain.

Clinton has yet to explain why she used her own server and personal email, instead of a State Department email address to comply with federal record-keeping requirements.

ABC News' John Parkinson and Meghan Keneally contributed to this report.

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