As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton requested a secure smartphone and was denied by the National Security Agency, new email releases show.
The revelations come in a new batch of released emails obtained by conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch, which has filed numerous Freedom of Information Act requests regarding Clinton’s e-mail use during her tenure at Foggy Bottom. As Clinton’s primary campaign gains momentum, controversy has swirled over her use of a private server to handle work-related emails.
In 2009, a month after Clinton’s denied request for a secure smartphone, she began using her Blackberry (BBRY) to access private accounts and communicate with her aides, according to the Associated Press.
The documents show that Clinton said she had become “hooked” on using a smartphone to communicate with staffers and maintain her schedule. But her requests for a secure smartphone were rebuffed by the NSA: Donald Reid, the department assistant director for security infrastructure, wrote that “we were politely told to shut up and color.”
In a press release, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton wrote: “These documents show that Hillary Clinton knew her Blackberry wasn’t secure. Then why did she use it to access classified information on her illicit email server?”