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Besides Clinton's obvious use of a private server for her State Department, what other major politicians have used private email accounts for official business (classified or not)? I am only aware of Jeb Bush, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and the Bush White House.

  • As a note, none of the figures listed above used private emails to the extent that Clinton did, so I am not comparing her degree guilt or innocence in passing classified information. I am interested in how widespread the practice of using non-government email accounts seems to have been.
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    -1 and VTC - the problem wasn't just using private email address but private email server, as well as violating far more serious things (sending classified materials and deleting data in violation of rules). This question is at best, leading, and at worst, just a rant.
    – user4012
    Oct 29, 2016 at 12:41

2 Answers 2

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If you believe this article, 1 in 3 federal employees use personal email for work.

According to this article, Colin Powell (a former SecState) also used personal email, and so did former SecState Condeleezza Rice.

George W. Bush and other White House officials got in hot water for using an RNC-owned email server. But they did not delete 33,000 emails. They deleted as many as 22,000,000.

General Patreus got into trouble for using a non-secure personal email address under a fake name.

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    You just repeated what was in the question. And Colin Powell and Rice didn't use email for official business, much less for the transmission of classified information.
    – user9790
    Nov 2, 2016 at 13:57
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    I suspect the public will never know exactly how Powell and Rice used their email, not for certain, just as we will never be certain what was in the 33,000 emails that Hillary Clinton deleted.
    – John Wu
    Nov 2, 2016 at 16:04
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The only two that I could find are Lisa Jackson, see my note above. And the Ambassador to Kenya, whom Hillary's State Department was fired for using private Email among multiple reasons.

The AP has found that the practice of using private email has exploded in the Obama Administration, including cabinet members like Kathleen Sebelius and Tom Perez.

Top Obama appointees using secret email accounts

Some of President Barack Obama's political appointees are using secret government email accounts to conduct official business, The Associated Press found, a practice that complicates agencies' legal responsibilities to find and turn over emails under public records requests and congressional inquiries.

Finally a recent Wikileaks released email from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign head, revealed:

A former top Department of State official who worked under Hillary Clinton told her presidential campaign chair every White House staffer and top cabinet official uses a personal email account.

“Btw you know as well as I every god damn cabinet officer and WH staff uses [their] gmail account!” Tom Nides, the former deputy secretary of state for management and resources, wrote to John Podesta in a March 2015 email.

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  • Thanks for adding Jackson's name, but actually Gration was asked to resign/fired for numerous reasons. See the Inspector General's official report: "The Ambassador has lost the respect and confidence of the staff to lead the mission. Of more than 80 chiefs of mission inspected in recent cycles, the Ambassador ranked last for interpersonal relations, next to last on both managerial skill and attention to morale, and third from last in his overall scores from surveys of mission members" etc. oig.state.gov/system/files/196460.pdf
    – rougon
    Oct 29, 2016 at 21:39
  • I concede that he was fired for multiple reasons.
    – user9790
    Oct 29, 2016 at 21:53

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