UPDATE: July 15, 2016, 6:30 PM

On July 15, 2016, at 6:00 PM, the Inspector General’s office sent the following email to Campaign for Accountability:

“Your [April 5] letter requested the OIG open an investigation into SecDef misuse of a private email account to conduct agency business. The OIG response indicated, “The ISO reviewed your allegations and found insufficient basis to initiate an inquiry.” The OIG letter was an automated response sent in error. The OIG has not closed this matter; rather, we are continuing to monitor the information requested from the Department of Defense by Congress. The OIG will make a determination, based on that information, whether any further action from the OIG is warranted regarding this matter.”

ORIGINAL: July 15, 2016, Noon

Contact: Daniel Stevens, dstevens@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750

WASHINGTON D.C – Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA) Executive Director Anne Weismann issued the following statement in response to the Department of Defense’s refusal to investigate Secretary Ashton Carter for misusing his private email account.

“The Inspector General’s refusal to investigate Secretary Carter’s use of a personal email is outrageous.  How can one cabinet official be publicly pilloried and criminally investigated for her use of a personal email account, while another walks away unscathed? What is good for the goose should be good for the gander.  We can’t have a double standard in which there is one rule for Sec. Clinton and another for everyone else.

While the conduct of the two may not be exactly the same – Sec. Carter did not use his own server, for example – government officials may not use private email accounts to conduct official business.  Period.  The Pentagon should be embarrassed that it is so cavalierly clearing a senior official who appears to have explicitly violated DoD’s own rules.”

On April 5, 2016, CfA called on the Inspector General to investigate Secretary Carter for using his personal email account to conduct official business concerning “a variety of work-related matters.” He continued this practice “for at least two months” after the public learned of the exclusive use of a personal email account by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to conduct government business.

On July 11, 2016, the Director of the Inspector General’s “Hotline” responded to CfA, finding “insufficient basis to initiate an inquiry.”

Read the Director’s Letter Below.

Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.