Fired ambassador: I used State’s e-mail for official business

So the issue with Gration at State wasn’t that he used private e-mail services for official business, or at least that’s Gration’s recollection of it. In fact, Gration had no problem using the “OpenNet” system, but State wouldn’t allow him to use his official devices to go outside of it. There is also one other key difference between Gration and Hillary, emphasis mine:

“It is false that I ignored State Department instructions and willfully disregarded State Department regulations concerning the use of commercial email for official government business. I used the OpenNet for much of my official business as I had full access to this system in my US Embassy office and in my residence,” he said. “My official emails were fully captured in the State Department data bases. I used Gmail for unofficial business and for my personal emails.” If Gration even had one inbound e-mail that went into State’s database, he’d be ahead of Hillary, whose system evaded that capture altogether. How do we know that? She didn’t have an official account at State to use, or to copy in a CC or BCC, that’s why. Some of her e-mails undoubtedly were captured when she e-mailed other officials at State — assuming she ever did, that is. Why not have her underlings do so instead?

The 2012 report on Gration initially read like he’d gone rogue like Hillary and got shivved for it while she continued on. However, a re-read in this context suggests that the truth lies closer to Gration’s story now:y

“My experience was somewhat different than Secretary Clinton’s use of her commercial account, yet I was ‘fired’ for the use of Gmail in the US Embassy, my insistence on improving our physical security posture, and other twisted and false allegations,” Gration wrote from Kenya, where he now works in the private sector. “I’ve chosen to move on and to be better, not bitter.” …

“It is true that I used my Gmail account to access my alerts and unclassified personal emails. I had subscribed to three ‘alerts’ programs that sent me breaking news stories, analysis of important events, and Africa-related articles…I use Gmail because these services were not available on the State Department’s OpenNet computer network,” the former ambassador wrote. “Over the years, I had also built a professional network that used my Gmail address. I wanted to have access to these capabilities and contacts while at work.”…

“Soon after becoming Ambassador, I tried hard to have my unclassified State Department emails and my Gmail messages displayed as separate accounts on the same State Department Blackberry. I had done this on BlackBerries in the past to eliminate having to carry around two devices. After four months of trying, I gave up and used two Blackberries to read my unclassified email traffic that could easily and safely been displayed on one,” the former ambassador added.

One thing that I don’t understand....

In my experience when you join an organization nowadays the IT people automatically create stuff for you - accounts and access rights - and an email account. Now you may not use that account but it is still there. I would think that the only way that there wouldn’t be one is if the IT folks were instructed NOT to create the mailbox. And I would think that someplace there would be a record of that conversation.

I believe you’er half right.

“the only way that there wouldn’t be one is if the IT folks were instructed NOT to create the mailbox.”

YEP

“someplace there would be a record of that conversation”

Nope!

“I used Gmail for unofficial business...” What is unofficial business?

Paying his bills, managing his investments, talking to friends and family? According to the strict letter of the rules, he should be using another non .gov account for that personal business.

Would the State Dept. fire someone for using the .gov account for someone telling their spouse they'd be late getting home or to pick up bread and milk on the way or checking their bank account? None of that is "government business."

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