Clinton Admits: Private Email Server Was My ‘Most Important Mistake’

Local Editor

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton opened up about the mistake she feels had the greatest impact on her US 2016 presidential election campaign and why she insists she isn't finished with politics.

In her first television interview to promote her new book, Clinton told interviewer Jane Pauley of CBS that using personal email while she was Secretary of State was the thing that had the most detrimental effect on her election bid.

After it was revealed in March 2015 that Clinton used a private email server to send and receive classified emails, the State Department, followed by the FBI in July, launched a probe into the emails. Clinton subsequently turned over some 30,000 messages to the State Department which released her emails in batches.

After a year-long investigation, then FBI director James Comey announced in July that although Clinton and her team were "extremely careless" in handling the messages, 100 of which were classified at the time and eight ranked Top Secret, the agency would not press charges.

The investigation, however, was reopened late October after thousands of emails related to the Clinton probe were discovered during a separate investigation into her former aid's estranged husband.

Comey said though that the investigation did not warrant any charges. But the damage was done.

"I think the most important of the mistakes I made was using personal email," Clinton told Pauley.

"I've said it before, I'll say it again, that was my responsibility. It was presented in such a negative way, and I never could get out from under it. And it never stopped."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team