Hillary Clinton struggled to explain what Meet The Press host Chuck Todd called a "discrepancy" about when she began to use her private server, as she previously said she began use of it in March of 2009 but a newly discovered email chain with then-Gen. David Petraeus showed she was using it in January of that year.
"Well, everything we had access to was certainly out there and the reason we know about the email chain with General Petraeus is because it was on a government server," she said. "So from my perspective, we have a very thorough review process that we conducted, and my attorneys supervised it, they went through everything, and what we had available at the time was turned over."
"But I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if you said in March that the email system began in March of' '09 but we have the same email address popping up in January. Explain that discrepancy," Todd said.
"There was a transition period," Clinton said. "I wasn't that focused on my email account to be clear here."
"Let me stop you there," Todd said, interrupting. "You say you weren't focused on it but this seemed to be -- to put an email server at your house is not a -- it's a complicated thing."
Clinton launched into a lengthy explanation about the server was at her home all along and she simply added her account to it, but she couldn't come out and explain why she had initially said she didn't began use of that server until March of that year.
Full exchange:
CHUCK TODD: I want to unpack a couple of things there, but let me start with the news of this week. You had said in a written statement under oath that you had turned over everything that you believed you had for the federal records with those 55,000 emails, but we've now discovered an email chain between then-General Petraeus and yourself that took place a couple of months before these records started. Can you explain the discrepancy there? Because it was the same email address that you used while at State that you were using with General Petraeus just two months before you had said everything was out there.
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, everything we had access to was certainly out there and the reason we know about the email chain with General Petraeus is because it was on a government server. So from my perspective, we have a very thorough review process that we conducted, and my attorneys supervised it, they went through everything, and what we had available at the time was turned over.
TODD: But I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if you'd said in March that the email system began in March of' '09 but we have the same email address popping up in January. Explain that discrepancy.
CLINTON: There was a transition period. You know, I wasn't that focused on my email account to be clear here.
TODD: Let me stop you there. You say you weren't focused on it but this seemed to be -- to put an email server at your house is not a -- it's a complicated thing.
CLINTON: Yeah, but it was already there. It had been there for years. It is the system that my husband's personal office used when he got out of the White House so it was sitting there in the basement. It was not any trouble at all. I know there are a lot of people who are questioning that, but the fact is that it was there. I added my account to it, it apparently took a little time to do that, so there was about a month where I didn't have everything already on the server. We went back and tried to recover whatever we could recover. And I think it's also fair to say that they're some things about this that I just can't control. I can't control the technical aspects of it. I'm not by any means a technical expert. I relied on people who were and we have done everything we could in response to the State Department asking us to do this review because they asked all the former secretaries. The reason they asked, Chuck, is because they found gaps in their own record-keeping. My assumption -- because this system was there before I became secretary, it was there when I left -- my assumption was anything that I sent to a dot-gov account would be captured.