Josh Earnest Struggles To Answer Whether Clinton’s Used of Private Email Was ‘Appropriate’

PICKLER: "Did anyone here at the White House authorize or raise any objections to Secretary Clinton using her personal email account while at the State Department?"

EARNEST: "Well, Nedra, what I can tell you is that very specific guidance has been given to agencies all across the government which is specifically that employees of the Obama administration should use their official email accounts when they're conducting official government business. However, when there are situations where personal email accounts are used it is important for those records to be preserved consistent with the Federal Records Act. In fact, the president signed into law a bill at the end of last year clarifying the guidelines for how those personal emails can be properly stored and maintained. This is part of why the State Department has asked all of the previous secretaries of state who have used any email as they were conducting official U.S. business to send their emails to the State Department so they could be properly preserved and maintained. Secretary Clinton's team in response to that request reviewed her emails and complied with that request by sending all of the emails on her personal account that pertain to her official responsibilities as secretary of the state. They did that even though many of the records were already maintained on the state system because those records were emails between secretary of state and State Department employees using their official government email address."

PICKLER: "So are you saying that her use of her personal email solely was appropriate or was it a violation of this policy?"

EARNEST: "Well, what you should do is that you should check with the State Department who is responsible for administering this policy. But the policy as a general matter allows individuals to use their personal email address as long as those emails are maintained and sent to the State Department which if you ask Secretary Clinton's team that's what they've completed in the last month or two."

PICKLER: "Given that she's not the first person to use personal email does there need to be some sort of a system for archiving personal emails of high-ranking government officials this?"

EARNEST: "Well, that is part of this law that I referred to that the president signed into law at the end of last year that does establish clear guidelines for how individuals, if they're using their personal email to conduct official business, can ensure that those records are properly maintained. Now, the official guidance that we offer to administration employees -- and it's certainly the guidelines that I followed here personally when I've been at the White House --is that I use my official government email address when I'm conducting official government business. It saves me the additional step of having to take a personal email and forward it to my government email so that it can be properly maintained. Now it's not incredibly uncommon for one of you or one of your colleagues to send an email to my personal address, a few of you have it, but when I do that I will answer the emails --which I try to be pretty good about doing -- but then, I will take that response and forward the email to my official account so that the record of that email exchange can be properly preserved."