Clinton to FBI: Powell said to use private email

Hillary Clinton reportedly told FBI investigators that former Secretary of State Colin Powell recommended she use a private email account at the State Department.

Clinton allegedly discussed email practices with her predecessor during a dinner after she became the top U.S. diplomat in 2009, The New York Times said Thursday.

{mosads}The New York Times said journalist Joe Conason first reported the talk in his forthcoming book about Bill Clinton’s life after the presidency, “Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton.”

An advanced copy the newspaper received states that Hillary Clinton spoke with Powell during a dinner party in Washington, D.C., hosted by Madeleine Albright, another former secretary of State.

Former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Condoleeza Rice also attended the festivities, which occurred at Albright’s home.

“Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat,” Conason wrote.

“Powell told [Clinton] to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer,” he added.

“Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department, [Powell] thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier — to keep her personal account and use it for most messages.”

The Times said Conason is a longtime defender of the Clintons and interviewed both Bill and Hillary for his book.

Powell’s office released a statement late Thursday saying he had no recollection of the dinner conversation.

Powell did write Hillary Clinton an email memo, the Times said, detailing his use of his personal email account for unclassified messages “and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department.”

Hillary Clinton also had a 2009 email exchange with Powell about his email practices at State after deciding to use a personal account there.

Both exchanges are reportedly included in notes the FBI provided Congress Tuesday and ultimately helped FBI Director James Comey not to pursue criminal charges against Clinton last month.

The FBI on Tuesday gave Congress notes about its three-hour interview with Clinton and the investigation into her email server after pressure from GOP lawmakers.

Republicans are now prepping an effort to bring perjury charges against the Democratic presidential nominee over her testimony last year to the House Select Committee on Benghazi. GOP lawmakers claim she lied under oath about her private email server during testimony last October.