Clinton Email Flap Raises New Benghazi Questions

Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging the State Department to release the emails from the private account she used when she was U.S. secretary of state.

Clinton tweeted late Wednesday that she wants the public to see her emails.

But that request only came after the likely Democratic presidential candidate came under fire this week for conducting official State Department business using a private email account, possibly in violation of federal regulations.

It's also been revealed by the Associated Press that Clinton took even greater steps to maintain complete control over her email record by running her own private email server instead of using a service like Google or Yahoo.

Clinton's account was actually set up on a special email server traced to her private home in Chappaqua, New York.

The unusual practice of a cabinet-level official running her own email server would have given Clinton significant control over limiting the federal government's access to her message archives.

Information security experts say Clinton's private email system put sensitive data at risk to hackers.

They believe a foreign intelligence agency could have gained access to official State Department material by targeting her personal server.

Meanwhile, officials at the White House counsel's office now say they were not aware at the time Clinton was secretary of state that she relied solely on personal email.

The office only found out she was bypassing traditional government email accounts during the congressional investigation into the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, according to a person familiar with the matter.

That person told the AP that Clinton's exclusive reliance on personal email as the nation's top diplomat was inconsistent with the guidance given to agencies that official business should be conducted through official email accounts.

"You do not need a law degree to have an understanding how troubling this is," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who is heading up the House committee investigating the Benghazi attack.

That committee issued subpoenas Wednesday for Clinton's emails.

"There are a chain of custody issues, there are preservation of materials and documents issues, there are expoliation of evidence issues, there are best evidence issues, in addition to asking about archives and what safeguards may have been in place to protect this information," Gowdy explained.

"One should also be concerned about the national security implications of former Secretary Clinton using exclusively personal email accounts for the conducting of official U.S. foreign policy," Gowdy added.