Although Hillary Clinton told the FBI in early July that former Secretary of State Colin Powell advised her to use a personal email account, Powell has offered a statement that denies Clinton’s claim. According to NBC News, on Friday, Powell released a statement through his office that read:
General Powell has no recollection of the dinner conversation. He did write former Secretary Clinton an email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department. At the time there was no equivalent system within the Department. He used a secure State computer on his desk to manage classified information.”
In 2009, Clinton asked Powell about his email practices when he was Secretary of State, according to a person who knew of Mr. Powell’s appearance in the documents.
The Daily Wire reports that the New York Times, which has seen an advance copy of Joe Conason’s forthcoming book about Bill Clinton’s post-presidency, “Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton,” reports that Conason recalls a conversation between Clinton and Powell at a private party hosted by previous Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when Clinton first assumed the reins at the State Department. Conason writes, “Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat. Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer. Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department.”
{Matzav.com}
Of course he didn’t tell her to – she said he did and all she does is lie!
“Powell Denies Report He Told Clinton To Use Private Email” would be more accurately titled “Powell Does Not Recollect Telling Clinton To Use Private Email”.
There’s quite a difference between calling someone a liar vs. not remembering a particular incident. The fact that Joe Conason claims that he does recall witnessing this conversation would seem to indicate that Hillary Clinton is being truthful here.
I stand corrected. Here’s a more complete quote from Colin Powell:
“The truth is she was using it (her personal email) for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did [during my term as Secretary of State].
“Her people have been trying to pin it on me.”
When asked why Clinton’s team were attempting to blame him, he responded, “Why do you think?”
Also this:
“Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer,” Conason wrote, “Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department,” Powell “thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier — to keep her personal account and use it for most messages.”
And this:
But Powell did not have a server at his house nor use outside contractors, as Clinton did, the Times reported. Plus the rules governing electronic communication got more strict between Powell’s time in office and Clinton’s.
So…
Yes, Powell in fact did call Hillary Clinton a liar.