Jake Tapper: Hillary Clinton Didn’t Follow the ‘Letter of the Law’

TAPPER: “What's really interesting is the fact that Jeb Bush jumped on it. Jeb Bush, who famously released about 250,000 e-mails from his two terms as Florida governor, saying in an e-mail clearly aimed at the former Secretary of State Clinton, transparency matters and calling for her to release all of her e-mails. I can't really say why this story is coming out right now, whether it's reporters realizing that without question Hillary Clinton is going to run for president and it's time to put some scrutiny on them, or perhaps the Clinton people are seeing some damaging stories in their midst and getting them out there as soon as possible. But, either way, I do think potentially it feeds into a narrative about Hillary Clinton that she does not want to be out there, which is that she is secretive and can't be trusted.”

CUOMO: “I think you're spot on about that in terms of the perception being reality, the optics of it. It seems a little less clear what she did wrong. The State Department changed its policy. Secretary Kerry has a different protocol now than was in place for then Secretary of State Clinton. So maybe that part goes quickly, but the political side maybe a longer haul, yes?”

TAPPER: “Yes, I agree. And the other thing that's interesting is the fact that they thought that they could get around the Federal Records Act by just having her send her e-mails –“

CUOMO: “Right.”

TAPPER: “Even though they were from a private account, not accountable to other State Department officials, their government accounts. That, of course, is not what the letter of the law says. The Federal Records Act explicitly says –“

CUOMO: “Yes.”

TAPPER: “That her aides should have retained all those e-mails and kept them and turned them over.”