Hillary Clinton says email server scandal ‘biggest nothing-burger’ of 2016 election

Hillary Clinton says her secret email server scandal was the “biggest nothing-burger” of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The former secretary of state sat down for questions in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Wednesday as part of the 2017 Code Conference. Her Election Day defeat to Republican Donald Trump was the subject of conversation, at which point she was asked about her worst campaign “misjudgment.” Her answer: the private server she used as former President Barack Obama’s top diplomat, which prompted an extensive investigation by the FBI.

“My email account was turned into the biggest scandal since Lord knows when,” Mrs. Clinton said, Mediaite reported. “And, you know, in the book I’m just using everything that anybody else said about it besides me to basically say this was the biggest nothing-burger ever. It was a mistake. I’ve said it was a mistake, and obviously if I could turn the clock back I wouldn’t have done it in the first place. But the way that it was used was very damaging.”

The panelists then asked her to clarify her remarks.

“We’re trying to get at what you think you misjudged,” a moderator said. “If you went all the way back, doing things that others had done before was no longer acceptable in the new environment in which we found ourselves,” Mrs. Clinton replied. “There was no law against it. There was no rule, nothing of that sort. So I didn’t break any rule. Nobody said, ’don’t do this,’ and I was very responsible and not at all careless. … It was maddening.”

The Department of Justice under former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch closed the agency’s case on July 7, but not before then-FBI Director James Comey offered a nationally televised rebuke of Mrs. Clinton.