--- description: Clinton went on the defensive Tuesday over her use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State. title: Hillary Clinton Defends Her Email Use As Secretary of State image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac928223cdc6e260/69885fe80a4a2269d39c5b08/hillary-clinton-emails1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Hillary Clinton Defends Her Email Use as Secretary of State by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 19, 2015 12:30 AM CUT  Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks during a campaign stop at Dr. William U. Pearson Community Center on August 18, 2015 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks during a campaign stop at Dr. William U. Pearson Community Center on August 18, 2015 in North Las Vegas, Nevada.Isaac Brekken—2015 Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 19, 2015 12:30 AM CUT Clinton went on the defensive Tuesday over her use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State, reiterating in a tense question-and-answer session with reporters that her email use was legal. “The facts are stubborn: What I did was legally permitted,” Clinton said. “I did not send classified material and I did not receive any material that was marked or designated classified which is the way you know whether something is.” Her campaign has come under increased fire after intelligence officials determined that 305 messages on her private account are potentially classified, and an inspector general said two of the messages contained information classified as “top secret.” The State Department has said it disagrees with many of those classification judgments, and Clinton has called the imbroglio an inter-agency dispute, maintaining no emails were classified at the time they were sent. “It has nothing to do with me,” Clinton said. “It’s the process by which the government—and sometimes in disagreement between various agencies of the government—make decisions about what can and cannot be disclosed.” Still, Clinton appeared aggravated during the brief press conference Tuesday, with the email controversy continuing to hound her more than five months since the news broke of her use of a private server. Some polls have showed dips in her trustworthy ratings among voters as she struggles to break free and focus on her policy proposals. In recent days she has sought to make light of her email debate, joking that she likes Snapchat because “those messages disappear all by themselves.” On Tuesday, a reporter asked her if she “wiped” her server. She replied, “What with like a cloth or something?” ### See Every Hillary Clinton TIME Cover  The September 14, 1992 issue of TIME Gregory Heisler  The May 10, 1993 issue of TIME Steve Liss  The March 21, 1994 issue of TIME Dirck Halstead  The March 18, 1996 issue of TIME Brad Markel  The July 1, 1996 issue of TIME TIME  The October 20, 1997 issue of TIME Patrick Demarchelier  The Feb. 9, 1998, issue of TIME. TIME  The August 31, 1998 issue of TIME Blake Sell—Reuters  The Sep. 28, 1998, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton at top center, behind Bill Clinton.) Cover Credit: DOUG MILLS-AP, KHUE BUI, DAN LOH-AP & STEVE HELBER-AP  The Feb. 15, 1999, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top right.) Cover Credit: MICHAEL O'NEILL  The February 22, 1999 issue of TIME TIME  The March 1, 1999 issue of TIME Aaron Shikler  The June 16, 2003 issue of TIME TIME  The August 28, 2006 issue of TIME Diana Walker for TIME  The Feb. 5, 2007, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top left.) Cover Credit: PHOTOGRAPH FOR TIME BY CHRISTOPHER MORRIS--VII  The November 19, 2007 issue of TIME John Ritter—Brooks Kraft  The Jan. 21, 2008, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top left.) Cover Credit: NICK WRIGHT  The February 18, 2008 issue of TIME Diana Walker, Doug Mills  The Feb. 25, 2008, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top.) Cover Credit: MATTHIAS CLAMER  The March 17, 2008 issue of TIME David Burnett  The Mar. 24, 2008, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top.) Cover Credit: ARTHUR HOCHSTEIN  The May 5, 2008 issue of TIME Callie Shell, Damon Winter  The May 12, 2008, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton under the second zero in "100.") Cover Credit: CHIP KIDD  The May 11, 2009, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton under the "E" in TIME.) TIME  The November 16, 2009 issue of TIME Marco Grob for TIME. Left inset: Getty Images  The November 7, 2011 issue of TIME Diana Walker for TIME  The Apr. 30, 2012, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton near top center.) TIME  The January 27, 2014 issue of TIME Photo-Illustration by Justin Metz for TIME. Pants: Don Farrall—Getty Images. Man: Bloom Image/Getty Images. Shoe: Yasinguneysu/Getty Images  The Mar. 23, 2015, issue of TIME Photograph by Spencer Platt–Getty Images  The Feb. 15, 2016, issue of TIME Photograph by James Nachtwey for TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4002575/hillary-clinton-press-conference-emails/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4002575/hillary-clinton-press-conference-emails/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Defends Her Email Use as Secretary of State","datePublished":"2015-08-19T00:30:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:00.156Z","description":"Clinton went on the defensive Tuesday over her use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State.","url":"https://time.com/4002575/hillary-clinton-press-conference-emails/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","hillary clinton emails"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac928223cdc6e260/69885fe80a4a2269d39c5b08/hillary-clinton-emails1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac928223cdc6e260/69885fe80a4a2269d39c5b08/hillary-clinton-emails1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks during a campaign stop at Dr. William U. 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