Bill Clinton says Hillary made mistake with personal email server but defends her actions

Former president of the United States Bill Clinton has admitted that it was a mistake for his wife and hopeful future president, Hillary Clinton, to use a personal email server while she served as secretary of state. However, he has defended his wife, adding that diplomats were not concerned with records classification at the time.

During a Q&A in Las Vegas on Friday, 12 August, Bill Clinton said his wife should have known she would be subject to a set of different rules if she ever decided to run for the White House. Despite this, he noted that her predecessors and successor had also used personal email servers and said that this issue was not a cause for distrust.

"If it were a cause for distrust, it's inconceivable that all these prominent national security people who were active in other administrations, including Republicans, would have endorsed her," said Bill Clinton. "I'm just telling you, there are people who spent their lifetime advancing national security who believe she's the only person left you can trust with it."

He was referring to a letter released earlier in the week by 50 top officials who used to work in the Republican White House. The signatories of the email questioned Republican candidate Donald Trump's ability to be the next president, adding that he would make the country less safe.

Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email system has continued to cause controversy during the US presidential elections. She has insisted that she set up the personal email for convenience, however, many have claimed that this gave her control over which of her correspondence and information could be released.

The presidential hopeful's legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her personal server to the US State Department in March 2015. However, they first deleted 30,000 messages that were "private and personal". Donald Trump's senior communications adviser, Jason Miller, has raised concerns over the fact that some of Clinton's emails were not released to the congressional committee that were investigating the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.