Does the federal government have an email problem?

With an ongoing debate about the actions and role of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the attack at the American embassy in Benghazi, a senior State Department official has confirmed that during her tenure she did not have an official department email account.The report into the email system used by Clinton was first reported in the New York Times on Monday.

Republicans, who have led investigations into the attack, have already began to demonstrate how this could be construed as a lack of transparency within the department. This could spell trouble for an embattled White House, who was already reacting to the criminal investigation of Lois Lerner’s emails, that had been reported destroyed before the investigation into her activities as the Director Exempt Organizations for the IRS in 2013.

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The Washington Post reported that the supposed emails in question had been found by investigators in only two weeks. The investigation continues into whether or not those emails will bring forward any new communications.

The Clinton case will likely draw continued allegations of a cover-up as many of the emails written by Clinton may not be able to be recovered by any method. Nick Merrill, Clinton spokesman told CNN Tuesday, that any email sent by Clinton to a department official would be retained on the receiving end, but any communications sent to an outside address could be permanently unavailable.

Merrill has stated publicly that Clinton was not in violations of any laws or regulations, and proper documentation for all communications have been maintained and given to investigators.

It became clear on Wednesday that Merrill was correct, Clinton was not in violation of any laws, unless emails from her private account during her tenure were not turned into the House Committee running the Benghazi investigation.

The practice of using private email accounts is not new, previous secretaries used non-department emails, but in 2013 the National Archives and Records Administration stated that official emails are to be retained and are a matter of public record. A law requiring official email use did not go into effect until Clinton left office.

The Times reported her staff took no action to preserve Clinton’s emails, which still may be a potential violation of the NARA regulations. Further the agency outlines that personal email should not be used as a sole method of communication, except in emergency situations, but those emails should also be preserved.