--- title: Clinton Adviser: Emails Were Read Prior to Discarding description: An adviser to Hillary Clinton offered further detail about the process her lawyers used to determine which of her emails to turn over to the State Department canonical: https://time.com/3748271/hillary-clinton-email-search/ author: Alex Altman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-19T01:26:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T15:10:12.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clinton Adviser: Emails Were Read Prior to Discarding og:description: An adviser to Hillary Clinton offered further detail about the process her lawyers used to determine which of her emails to turn over to the State Department og:url: https://time.com/3748271/hillary-clinton-email-search/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66396ffde1020235/698783f0e53aba355d4d81a7/hillary-clinton8.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton Inducted Into Irish America Hall of Fame og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clinton Adviser: Emails Were Read Prior to Discarding twitter:description: An adviser to Hillary Clinton offered further detail about the process her lawyers used to determine which of her emails to turn over to the State Department twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66396ffde1020235/698783f0e53aba355d4d81a7/hillary-clinton8.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Questions Remain After Clinton Camp Discloses Reading Each Email ## Video: Hillary Clinton Addresses Email Controversy [Watch (HLS stream): Hillary Clinton Addresses Email Controversy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ztAw0Ra0.m3u8) (2:47)  _Published 2015-03-10. Hillary Clinton Addresses Email Controversy_  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:10 PM UTCPublished: Mar 19, 2015 1:26 AM UTC  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks on stage during a ceremony to induct her into the Irish America Hall of Fame on March 16, 2015 in New York City. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks on stage during a ceremony to induct her into the Irish America Hall of Fame on March 16, 2015 in New York City.Yana Paskova—Getty Images  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:10 PM UTCPublished: Mar 19, 2015 1:26 AM UTC A week after trying to move beyond [her email controversy](http://time.com/3741847/the-clinton-way/), Hillary Clinton is still working to clarify how she cleared her inbox. Her staff now says lawyers read through every email she sent and received as Secretary of State before deeming more than half of them to be personal records and discarding them. The new assertion expands on Clinton’s initial account of how her attorneys determined which emails to turn over in response to a State Department records request. But as two Republican-controlled House committees investigate her email-retention practices, key questions about the process remain. As Secretary of State, Clinton had a responsibility to turn over all emails from her home computer server that qualify as federal records, even if they contained only a line or two of official business. Intentionally destroying such records can be prosecuted as a crime, though Clinton says her attorneys were careful to follow the law. In a fact sheet released after Clinton’s March 10 press conference at the U.N., her office provided a detailed description of the “multistep” sorting process her attorneys used to separate work-related documents from personal correspondence. The lawyers started with a search for all emails sent and received during Clinton’s tenure at Foggy Bottom, then searched for documents sent to and from government email accounts, scanned for the first and last names of more than 100 specific people, reviewed those addresses to check for common misspellings and “lastly” looked for possible work-related keywords like _Benghazi._ These steps produced over 30,400 emails, Clinton’s office said. A total of 30,490 were handed over to the State Department. The fact sheet made no mention of anyone reading the emails, [raising questions about whether relevant documents slipped through the cracks.](http://time.com/3740357/hillary-clinton-emails-search/) Several days after the press conference, Clinton’s spokesman Nick Merrill told TIME that her lawyers used keywords and other filters in addition to reading each document individually, not in lieu of that process. “Every one of the more than 60,000 emails were read,” Merrill said. “We apologize if the fact sheet wasn’t clear enough on this point.” A person familiar with the effort said Clinton’s attorneys read every line of the email cache. But Clinton’s team has still not explained some details of the email review, including how the two methods complemented each other, when the reading began and whether it resulted in any additional documents being handed over to the State Department. The answers to those questions could still matter for Clinton, who is preparing to launch her all-but-certain presidential campaign in the coming weeks. House Speaker John Boehner called on Clinton to turn over her personal server to a “neutral third party” even though Clinton has said her 31,830 personal records have already been discarded. “I think this is the fairest way,” Boehner told reporters on March 17, “to make sure that we have all the documents that belong to the public, and ultimately all of the facts.” **UPDATE**: _On July 5, 2016, FBI Director James Comey announced that an investigation into Clinton’s email servers had relied on header information and search terms to identify work related emails. “The lawyers doing the sorting for Secretary Clinton in 2014 did not individually read the content of all of her e-mails,” he said._ ### See the 2016 Candidates Looking Very Presidential  Sen. Ted Cruz is surrounded by stars and stripes at the 2014 Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. on September 26, 2014. Mark Peterson—Redux  Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton gazes pensively into the distance at Iowa Senator Tom Harken'a annual Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa on September 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis for TIME  Jeb Bush Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush flashes a power watch before giving his keynote address at the National Summit on Education Reform in Washington on Nov. 20, 2014. Susan Walsh—AP  Bernie Sanders waves to supporters after officially announcing his candidacy for the U.S. presidency during an event at Waterfront Park in Burlington, Vermont, on May 26, 2015. Win McNamee—Getty Images  Chris Christie New Jersey Governor Chris Christie strikes a presidential power stance at the ceremony for the opening of the 206 bypass in Hillsborough, New Jersey on October 28, 2013. Mark Peterson—Redux  Former Hewlett-Packard Co Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina listens to her introduction from the side of the stage at the Freedom Summit in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 24, 2015. Jim Young—Reuters  Rand Paul Sen. Rand Paul works a crowd during a campaign stop on October 24, 2014 in McDonough, Georgia. Jessica McGowan—Getty Images  Rick Perry Texas Gov. Rick Perry looks powerfully patriotic during the National Anthem before an NCAA college football game on Nov. 27, 2014, in College Station, Texas. David J. Phillip—AP  Bobby Jindal Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal looks to the future during The Family Leadership Summit on Aug. 9, 2014, in Ames, Iowa. Charlie Neibergall—AP  Martin O'Malley Maryland Governor Martin OíMalley ponders decorating ideas in front of his possible future home on CBS's Face the Nation on Feb. 23, 2014. Chris Usher—AP  Marco Rubio Sen. Marco Rubio looks determined the morning after the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C. on January 29, 2014. Melissa Golden—Redux  Ben CarsonBen Carson at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference on March 8, 2014. Susan Walsh—AP  Jim Webb Retiring Sen. Jim Webb imitates the presidential wave during a rally in Virginia Beach, Va. on Sept. 27, 2012. Steve Helber—AP  John Kasich Ohio Gov. John Kasich practices his presidential victory pose at the Ohio Republican Party celebration on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014, in Columbus, Ohio. Tony Dejak—AP  Rick Santorum Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum looks resolute at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 7, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Scott Walker Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker practices the presidential point on March 3, 2014 in Milwaukee. Jeffrey Phelps—AP  Mike Huckabee Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee fine-tunes his presidential oratory at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in National Harbor, Md. on March 7, 2014. Susan Walsh—AP  Lincoln Chafee, Former Rhode Island Governor, poses for a selfie with a student after announcing he will seek the Democratic nomination for president in Arlington, Va. on June 3, 2015. Jonathan Ernst—Reuters  Lindsey Graham Lindsey Graham announced his plans to join the 2016 presidential race. Alex Wong—Getty Images  George Pataki Former New York governor George Pataki listens to a question at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Conference in Nashua, New Hampshire, in this April 17, 2015 file photo. 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