New Emails Show Clinton Used Private Server Earlier Than She Said

State Department has unearthed new Clinton emails related to Benghazi attack.

ByABC News
September 26, 2015, 1:20 PM

— -- Newly disclosed emails from Hillary Clinton to then CENTCOM chief David Petraeus show that the former secretary of state was using a private server earlier than she had previously said.

The new set of emails, from January to February 2009, was turned over to the State Department by the Department of Defense, State Department spokesman John Kirby told ABC News, confirming a story originally reported by The Associated Press.

The State Department said its record of Clinton emails begins on March 18, 2009. Over the nearly two months she was in office before that, Clinton has said she used a Blackberry email account that she can no longer access.

The discovery appears to contradict Clinton's sworn statement that she had turned over all the email from her private server to the State Department.

Clinton's team did not respond to a request from ABC News for comment.

The revelation came the same day the State Department said it had found previously undisclosed emails related to the Benghazi terror attack on Clinton's private email account.

In February, the Department turned over 296 emails relating to Benghazi to the House Select Committee investigation the attack, claiming at the time that they were the only emails relevant to the committee's request.

The discovery Friday of a handful of new emails, first reported by the Daily Beast, contradicted that claim.

A senior State Department official told ABC News on Friday that it missed these emails the first time around because of the cumbersome nature of discovery process. Clinton turned over 55,000 printed pages of documents that had to be search by hand, which prevented researchers from conducting electronic keyword searches, according to this official. The new emails were discovered only after the documents had been scanned and searched on a computer.