WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Hillary Rodham Clinton solely used her own personal email account to conduct government business while serving as Secretary of State, in possible violation of federal rules.
In a story first reported by the New York Times Monday night, Clinton had no government email address during her four-year tenure at the nation's top diplomat.
The Times also says her aides failed to preserve emails on State Department servers, as required by the Federal Records Act.
Clinton's camp insists there was no wrongdoing despite the apparent lack of transparancy.
'Like Secretaries of State before her, she used her own e-mail account when engaging with any Department officials,' spokesman Nick Merrill said in a widely published email. 'For government business, she e-mailed them on their Department accounts, with every expectation they would be retained.'
The State Department also downplayed the issue.
'The State Department has long had access to a wide array of Secretary Clinton's records -- including emails between her and Department officials with state.gov accounts,' State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told Fox News late Monday.
Clinton is likely to remain the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 unless it can be established that she was hiding something by using her personal account.
Last week, the results of a Quinnipiac University poll show the former Secretary of State with a substantial lead in an early look at the Iowa caucuses.
The poll found that 61 percent of likely Iowa Democratic Caucus participants would support Clinton if the caucus were held today.
Reports say she is planning to officially announce her candidacy in April.
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