Clinton pulls plug on testy presser over server questions

Hillary Clinton dismissed the controversy surrounding her private email server and defended her conduct as legal during a press conference on Tuesday in Las Vegas. 

{mosads}A visibly aggravated Clinton repeatedly insisted that she had done nothing wrong and seemed frustrated by questions about the issue. 

“What I did was legally permitted, number one, first and foremost,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in response to a question from Fox News reporter Ed Henry. “We turned over everything that was work-related, every single thing.”

She added that in “retrospect,” it had not turned out to be convenient to have the private server during her years as secretary of State. 

“I regret that this has become a cause celebre. But that does not change the facts, and no matter what anybody tries to say, the facts are stubborn,” she said. 

“I know there is a certain level of anxiety or interest in this, but the facts are the facts.” 

Asked if the server, which has been turned over to the Department of Justice, had been wiped clean, Clinton initially shrugged and later joked, “Like with a cloth or something? 

“I don’t know how it works digitally at all,” she added. 

Her comments came hours after NBC News reported that the FBI is hoping to recover some data from the server.

Aides could be heard in the background telling reporters that Clinton had to go, but she remained to answer questions for a few more minutes before leaving. As she walked away, she turned back and shrugged at reporters, who continued to ask questions. 

Along with the FBI, intelligence agency officials are looking into whether Clinton’s server possessed classified information after two emails were found to have been later classified as top secret.

Clinton turned over more than 50,000 pages of official emails to the State Department, but deleted a similar number of emails that she deemed personal.

In Tuesday’s press conference, Clinton said she did not turn over personal emails and had no obligation to do so.

House Select Committee on Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) had repeatedly asked Clinton to give the server to an independent party in order to ensure nothing official had been deleted. He chided her in March for deleting emails, which he framed as “ensuring no one could check behind her analysis in the public interest.” 

Many experts have cited the controversy to explain, in part, why Clinton has lost ground in recent polls of the presidential race.

Her lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has shrunk, some of her Republican rivals are leading her in battleground states and talk of a potential challenge from Vice President Biden has intensified over the past few weeks.