Hillary Clinton predicted that the controversy over her use of a private email server while secretary of state is nearing its end.
“I think we’re getting closer and closer to wrapping this up,” Clinton said Sunday in an interview with CBS’ John Dickerson on “Face the Nation.”
Despite her optimism, the investigation has continued. Her comments come after a former State Department staffer was given immunity to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation into those emails.
Clinton said she’s “delighted” that Bryan Pagliano, the staffer who helped set up her server, is cooperating with the investigation.
And she deflected concerns that her email use will lead to indictments that could damage her Democratic presidential campaign.
“There is no basis for that. It’s a security review,” she said. “I’m delighted that he has agreed to cooperate, as everyone else has. And I think that we’ll be moving toward a resolution of this.”
She had also been attacked politically on claims her use of a private server made the information more vulnerable to hacks.
Security logs turned over from the Clinton server show no obvious sign of hackings, though that alone is not definitive proof the machine was not compromised, two law enforcement officials tell CNN. Security logs do not always tell the whole picture as an experienced hacker can remove any trace after they’ve compromised a server, the officials noted.
Clinton argued Sunday that in the aftermath of the email controversy, the government’s process of retroactively classifying emails that were not designated as classified at the time they were sent should be the topic of scrutiny.
“I also know that there were reports today about the hundreds of officials and the thousand emails that they were sending back and forth that have been looked at and classified retroactively. This really raises serious questions about this whole process,” Clinton said.
“I think Colin Powell summed it up well,” she said. “When he was told that some of his emails from more than 10 years ago were going to be retroactively classified, he called it an absurdity. So I’m hoping that, you know, we’ll get through this and then everybody can take a hard look at the inter-agency disputes and the arguments over retroactive classification.”
Clinton continued: “Remember, I’m the one who asked that all my emails be made public. I’ve been more transparent than anybody I can think of in public life. But it’s also true that when something is made public, everybody from across the government gets to weigh in, and that’s what’s happening here. And we need to get it sorted out and then take action from there.”