Hillary Invokes ‘Cannot Recall’ Defense Another 20 Times

Hillary Clinton used a private email server as a matter of convenience, the Democratic presidential nominee told Judicial Watch via legal responses to questions on her conduct ordered by a judge on Thursday.

The former secretary of state also once again used the opportunity to blame her course of action on Colin Powell, a former Republican secretary of state.

“Secretary Clinton states that former Secretary of State Colin Powell advised her in 2009 about his use of a personal e-mail account to conduct official State Department business.”

Judicial Watch, a conservative-leaning legal watchdog organization, forced Clinton to answer 25 questions on paper after a federal judge ruled in the group’s favor regarding the Freedom of Information Act. Judicial Watch had been seeking answers on cybersecurity, which gave Clinton the opening to deny answering certain questions.

Most of the questions focused on the creation of her private computer server, built in 2009 after she left the U.S. Senate and became secretary of state. Use of a private server to handle classified information is illegal.

Clinton signed off on the answers on Oct. 10, under penalty of perjury. The answers cling closely to answers she has already given to federal authorities on the email issue. Mostly, Clinton skated by the questions using the fog of memory lapse.

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“Secretary Clinton recalls deciding to use a clintonemail.com email account to conduct official State Department business in early 2009,” says the legal response. “She does not recall any specific consultations regarding the decision to use the clintonemail.com account for official State Department business.”

In fact, Clinton said she did not recall aspects of her use of a private server and her handling of classified material at least 20 times in the response to Judicial Watch. Clinton also denied she was ever recommended to use a personal email account for State Department business but did say using private email was the idea of former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

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“Secretary Clinton states that former Secretary of State Colin Powell advised her in 2009 about his use of a personal email account to conduct official State Department business,” the filing says.

Clinton also denied destroying any emails — at least, as far as she can remember.

“Secretary Clinton states that she does not recall altering, destroying, disclosing, or using any emails related to official State Department business from her tenure as secretary of state in her clintonemail.com account or instructing anyone else to do so after she left office and before her attorneys reviewed the emails in her clintonemail.com email account in response to the State Department’s request,” her filing read.

The case is Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of State, 13-cv-1363, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia.