Clinton ‘most transparent public official in modern times’

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned Republican critics of her email practices, saying she is the "most transparent" public official of modern times.

“I said, ‘make them all public,’” she said of her emails from her time as secretary of state on Friday. "I’ve been the most transparent public official in modern times as far as I know.”

“When that process is undertaken, these other agencies get to weigh in and say, ‘hey, wait a minute, I don’t think that should come out now,’ whether or not the State Department or some other agency agrees,” she added. "That is par the course. Now, whether or not it should be is a whole separate issue.”

“It doesn’t change in any way. Nothing was marked classified and you know, that is just a fact. And it’s, I think, one that bears repeating,” Clinton added.

Clinton, who is running for president of the United States, has come under fire from her Republican rivals since it emerged in March 2015 that she used a personal email account on an unsecured private server for official business.

The former first lady has denied handling classified information on her private server. However, federal investigators, looking into the latest batch of Clinton’s emails released by the State Department, have determined that at least some of the emails contain classified information.

Clinton’s decision to use a private server potentially put thousands of pages of State Department emails at risk, but it also shielded her correspondence from congressional and Freedom of Information Act requests.

The US State Department has released tens of thousands of pages of Clinton's personal emails to comply with a judge’s order.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly expanded its investigation of Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state.

The ongoing investigation is now reportedly focused on determining whether the possible “intersection” of Clinton Foundation affairs and State Department business may have violated public corruption laws.

FBI Director James Comey has said that his bureau is taking the investigation very seriously and politics will not play a factor in it.

The new venue of probe is in addition to the focus of the ongoing investigation into the classified information shared in Clinton’s emails.

On Friday, Clinton attempted to reassure voters worried about the FBI investigation into her personal email server.

“This is the same security review that has been going on since last spring,” she said. "I’m happy that everybody has been cooperating and giving information because I think that will finally end this and show that only appropriate steps were taken.”

“I know that the Republicans are engaging in some wishful thinking, but this is not something that people should be worried about,” she added.

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