Is the Clinton email fiasco the NSA's fault?

Newly released messages from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server (now searchable thanks to Wikileaks, by the way) indicate the National Security Agency (NSA) may be partially to blame for the insecurity of her communications.

Clinton's staff was repeatedly rebuffed in requests for the agency to provide a secure Blackberry or similar device the secretary could use to constantly monitor work emails. "[E]ach time we asked the question, 'What was the solution for [the president]?' we were politely told to shut up and color," wrote Donald Reid, a State Department security official, in February 2009.

The emails do not make clear how the situation was resolved. Regardless of that outcome, however, the NSA's decision can only be given a supporting role in Clinton's email controversy given the established timeline of events: The private server Clinton used was the same one she'd employed in her 2008 presidential campaign. She was sworn in as secretary in January 2009 and registered her private email domain in the same month. Though she did not stop using her Senate-era government email address in favor of her private one until March — after the NSA request — the January registration suggests the transition was already planned.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up