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Blumenthal Can't Explain Why Hillary Clinton Used a Private Email Server

May 11, 2016

Longtime Hillary Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal couldn't explain Wednesday why Clinton had elected to use a private email server as secretary of state.

Blumenthal, whose emails to Clinton on a variety of issues appeared all over the email dump by the State Department, also wouldn't say this week whether the FBI had interviewed him in its criminal investigation into the server.

"Why did she set up a personal server?" CNN host Alisyn Camerota asked on New Day. "That's beyond just using one device for personal and professional emails. Why did she need the personal server?"

"Well, that's a question I don't know the answer to, and it's a question that, uh, uh, she's, uh, explained, so you'd have to, um, go to her explanation about that," Blumenthal said.

Clinton has repeatedly referred to the FBI probe as a security review, and she reiterated last weekend on CBS that she wants it to be "wrapped up" soon. She has acknowledged it was a "mistake" to use the unsecured server, but she has denied any criminal wrongdoing or mishandling of classified material.

"I ask you because the emails that have been released show that you were in regular contact with her. You were giving her advice on all sorts of policy things and political things," Camerota said. "Did you talk to her about setting up a personal server?"

"Oh, no," Blumenthal said. "I had nothing to do with that."

Camerota asked if he would have told her it was as bad idea if he knew she was using a personal server.

"I have no idea," Blumenthal said. "We're old friends, and when you're a friend of somebody who's in the middle of politics, you get caught up in politics, too."