A report released Wednesday by the State Department's Office of Inspector General said Hillary Clinton shouldn't have used a private email server to conduct official business and would have not been allowed to do so had she asked. It also found that she violated department policy.
What's new here? Clinton herself has said that, in hindsight, she should not have used her private email or a private server.
Was there a crime? Not by this report. This report is about rules, not laws, and the former secretary of state, now presidential candidate, has noted that her email use was in line with that of other former secretaries of state - something the 83-page report confirms.
In fact, the report reviewed the email practices of five secretaries of state and found email use and record keeping had been spotty for years. The report was particularly critical of former secretary of state Colin Powell - who has acknowledged publicly that he used a personal email account to conduct business - concluding that he, too, failed to follow department policy designed to comply with public-record laws.
On Thursday, ABC News offered a good analysis of what some have seen as contradictory statements between the Clinton campaign website and the report findings about whether her use of private email was allowed.
According to her website: "Yes. The laws, regulations, and State Department policy in place during her tenure permitted her to use a non-government email for work," the answer reads. In a March debate, she acknowledged that she had not sought approval for the private setup. She noted the practices of her predecessors and said "there was no permission to be asked . It was permitted."
ABC noted that the IG report "offered a more nuanced answer." It said that guidelines produced by the State Department during her tenure "discouraged" the use of private email and identified the risks of doing so, also saying that official State Department email should be used in "most circumstances." Clinton never used it in any circumstance.
Another big Clinton criticism from the report dealt with preserving public records. The report notes that she should have turned over the records when she left office. She has maintained that because she had emailed State Department officials on their government accounts, records of her communications were preserved. Eventually she did turn over all the emails in 2015 when the issue became a GOP itch.
The IG report, however, said emailing the records to State Department officials on their government accounts is "not an appropriate method of preserving any such emails that would constitute a federal record. The report says that because Clinton did not hand over the emails before she left, she did "not comply with the Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act."
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, told The Washington Post that the report underscores the need for federal agencies to adapt "decades-old record-keeping practices to the email-dominated modern era." He said the agency has put multiple improvements in place. The next paragaph may offer a hint of the adaptive "improvements."
The IG report concludes Clinton should have printed and saved her emails during her four years in office and surrendered the work-related correspondence immediately upon stepping down in February 2013.
That sounds secure, doesn't it? Print out, file, box up and ship or store a bunch of emails that everyone is theoretically all worked up about specifically because of their need to be secret and secure? Go figure.