It turns out that Hillary Clinton isn’t the only federal official to have used a personal email address for government business. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has apparently made use of a personal email account for official matters as well. The Defense Secretary has used his personal account as recently as May of 2015.
During his first months at the Pentagon, Ash Carter used his personal email account to conduct a portion of his official government business. The news has been reported by officials from the White House and the Defense Department, who have obtained copies of Carter’s emails.
The practice of using a personal email account for official business is a direct violation of Defense Department rules. Ash Carter used his personal email account for at least two months after the public learned in March that Hillary Clinton had been exposed for a similar offense. It is unknown how many business-related emails Carter sent from his personal account.
Government spokesperson Peter Cook said, “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. As a result, he stopped such use of his personal email and further limited his use of email altogether.”
While many senior administration officials use personal email accounts from time to time, Carter used his personal email to discuss important matters such as speeches, meetings and media appearances. One email mentioned how the Defense Secretary accidentally placed a notecard with other documents that were set to be destroyed.
The actions from Hillary Clinton earned her a large amount of public distrust, and the scandal is still continuing to plague the former Secretary of State even as she is running for president. Clinton ended up having to turn thousands of emails over to investigators. While Carter might not be as prominent of a public figure as Clinton, he is still expected to receive a large amount of backlash for his actions. Much like Clinton, it will be a long time until Carter can fully win back the trust of the public.
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