Carter on Using Private Email: Should've Known Better

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday he "should have known better" than to use his personal email for work-related matters.

Carter responded to a report in the New York Times which said he used personal email to conduct some work matters during his first months at the Pentagon — a violation of Defense Department rules — and even after Hillary Clinton came under fire for doing the same while secretary of state.

Carter said the "mistake" was entirely his, telling reporters in Iraq that he had used an iPhone to send administrative emails and stopped doing so a few months ago. 

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in an earlier statement Wednesday that Carter rarely uses email for government business to begin with and that the personal email account was for corresponding "primarily with friends and family."

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