National Archives request to State Department to explain Hillary Clinton emails

MAR 03 2015

Margaret P. Grafeld

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Global Information Services

Bureau of Administration

U.S. Department of State

SA-2, Suite 8000

515 22nd Street, NW

Washington, DC 20522-0208

Dear Ms. Grafeld:

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is concerned with the events outlined in the March 2, 2015, New York Times article by Michael S. Schmidt regarding the potential alienation of Federal email records created or received by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The article also suggests potential issues with the Federal email record created or received by former Secretaries of State dating back to Secretary Madeleine K. Albright.

Based on this article and other news reports, NARA is concerned that Federal records may have been alienated from the Department of State's official recordkeeping systems.

Pursuant to your Department's responsibilities under 44 U.S.C. Chapter 31 and NARA's authorities in 44 U.S.C. Chapter 29, we request that the Department of State explore this matter and provide NARA a report of how these records were managed and the current status of these records.

We request that you provide us with a report as required and described in 36 CFR 1230.14 within 30 days of the date of this letter.

If Federal records have been alienated, please describe all measures the Department has taken, or expects to take, to retrieve the alienated records. Please also include a description of all safeguards established to prevent records alienation incidents from happening in the future. Please also provide NARA all guidance and directives disseminated within the Department that address the management of email records, including those records created using personal email accounts.

If you are unable to provide a report within 30 days, please provide us with an interim report indicating what actions you have taken and when you expect to submit a final report.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

[signature]

PAUL M. WESTER, JR.

Chief Records Officer

for the U.S. Government