US defense chief’s email practices come under spotlight

WASHINGTON

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has used his personal email account for official correspondence, the New York Times said in its report Wednesday.

“Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter relied on a personal email account to conduct a portion of his government business during his first months at the Pentagon, according to White House and Defense Department officials and copies of Mr. Carter’s emails obtained by The New York Times,” the daily wrote in its exclusive report.

According to the daily, it is not known when Carter stopped using his personal account for business but according to an administration official, the defense chief continued to use it even after Hillary Clinton’s email scandal became public in March.

Clinton was found out to have used her personal email account as secretary of state, which is considered as a violation of federal rules.

The unnamed official speaking to the daily noted that the White House Chief of Staff, Denis R. McDonough, learned about Carter’s email practices in May and asked for the reason of the case.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement that Carter had acknowledged that it was wrong to use personal email.

“After reviewing his email practices earlier this year, the secretary believes that his previous, occasional use of personal email for work-related business, even for routine administrative issues and backed up to his official account, was a mistake,” said Cook.

It is yet to be clarified how many emails Carter sent via his personal account but Cook said that all of them were also copied to his official account to be kept for records.

The New York Times article, however, shows that the daily was aware of the Carter’s email practice since September.

“In September, The Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all emails from the personal account that Mr. Carter sent or received with his chief of staff at the time, Eric Fanning, during the month of April,” it wrote noting that in November, the Defense Department provided it with 72 work-related emails that Carter sent or received from his personal email account.