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The House select committee on Benghazi, which first discovered her use of a personal email for official business, will send the subpoenas to the state department. Republicans who have already accused her old department of a cover-up over the attack will pounce on any suggestion that Mrs Clinton is failing to cooperate fully with their investigation.

The AP noted that most individuals who operate their own email servers are technical experts or users so concerned about issues of privacy and surveillance they want to take control of their Internet communications. No other official of her seniority is known to have gone to such extreme lengths to control emails involving government operations.

The former first lady has not commented on her email habits since it was revealed that she used a private account with the address hdr22@clintonemail.com for all communications during her four years as secretary of state. The AP traced that address back to a private email server registered under a possible pseudonym at her Chappaqua home by reviewing Internet records.

"Operating her own server would have afforded Clinton additional legal opportunities to block government or private subpoenas in criminal, administrative or civil cases because her lawyers could object in court before being forced to turn over any emails," wrote the wire service's Jack Gillum and Ted Bridis.

"And since the Secret Service was guarding Clinton's home, an email server there would have been well protected from theft or a physical hacking."

A spokesman for Mrs Clinton did not respond to requests seeking comment from the AP about the arrangement. The former secretary of state, who is expected to announce her candidacy in coming months, did not address the issue during a speech at the 30th anniversary gala of Emily's List, an abortion rights political pressure group.

The latest revelation provided fresh political ammunition for Republican foes that Mrs Clinton is a controlling secrecy-obsessed figure. Leading Democrats struggled to explain her email set-up even and privately acknowledged dismay while publicly trying to rally to her support.

The NYT revelation that Mrs Clinton exclusively used a personal account for official business raised questions about whether she preserved all her work-related emails, as required by the Federal Records Act.

But her spokesman, Nick Merrill, said that Mrs Clinton complied with the both letter and spirit of the law because her advisers reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails to decide which ones to turn over to the State Department after the agency asked for them.

Several media organisations have reported that their requests for official Clinton emails under the US Freedom of Information Act have been held up for years with no explanation. The AP noted that since her resignation in 2013, the state department would have to negotiate with Mrs Clinton to turn over any messages that it could not recover from the inboxes of federal employees she emailed.

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Hillary Clinton ran State Department email operations from private internet server at home

NEW YORK With its star-studded cast of attendees, its plush setting at the famed downtown Cipriani, and its strict no-media rules, the Clinton Foundations annual gala could hardly be coming at a worse moment for Hillary Clinton before she launches her all-but-certain presidential campaign.

The presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner is set to attend the Wednesday-night event full of donors amid controversies about her use of a personal email address as secretary of state and the foundations own fundraising practices and oversight. Clinton did not address either matter in a widely anticipated speech in Washington on Tuesday night. And as the foundations high-profile event on Wednesday is closed to the press, she is not expected to start defending herself in this appearance.

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But the scene close to Wall Street and likely to include banking industry officials alongside former Clinton administration honchos and other friends of Bill and Hillary seems destined to highlight some of the less flattering aspects of Clintons potential candidacy, including the common critique that she has so far spent more time thus far behind closed doors with bigwigs than with voters.

Tickets to the affair start at $2,500, with Gala Leadership Committee levels starting at $25,000. The foundation has accelerated its fundraising to build an endowment in advance of a possible Clinton presidential campaign.

Its not the best timing, said one Democratic operative close to Clintons emerging campaign team, noting that the event was likely in the Wall Street space for security purposes, and that it had been planned for months. But its also nothing new.

The event will almost certainly provide Clinton with a chance to allay some recent concerns coming from donors personally. Friends and supporters have questioned her decision to delay the start to her much-anticipated presidential campaign, especially because it leaves her without a full political staff to handle mounting questions about her personal email account, among other controversies.

One major New York-based Democratic donor said Clintons herky-jerky start is causing concern in the citys influential donor community.

This email cockup is not going to go away, the donor said, echoing a sentiment voiced by a wide range of Clintons backers.

While a network of pro-Clinton groups and her aides have pushed back forcefully in the face of Republican fire, Clinton defied the expectation of some of her allies that she would address the controversies in front of a friendly audience at the EMILYs List gala on Tuesday in Washington.

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Hillary Clinton's awkward Wall St. gala

Hillary Clinton delivers dinner remarks at EMILY's List 30th Anniversary Gala in Washington on March 3, 2015 REUTERS

The House committee investigating the 2012 U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya has issued subpoenas for the emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The subpoenas cover "all communications of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton related to Libya and to the State Department for other individuals who have information pertinent to the investigation," said Jamal Ware, the committee's spokesman, in a statement. Ware also said the committee issued preservation letters to internet firms informing them of their legal obligation provide the relevant documents and ensuring that the documents are preserved.

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Clinton is under scrutiny, with new questions about the private email account she used as secretary of state. Her emails trace to an Internet ser...

"It's an effort to go after the documents that I would argue that you and I should have had access to all along," the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, said in an interview with Fox News before the subpoenas were formally announced. "I'm going to go wherever the facts take us."

Clinton's email has come under public scrutiny since revelations earlier this week that she used only her personal email account rather than a government address while at the State Department. Additionally, the Associated Press reported Wednesday that the computer server that transmitted and received Clinton's emails was traced back to an Internet service at her family's home in Chappaqua, New York.

Ware has said that of the emails they have received from Clinton relating to the Benghazi investigation came from "two separate and distinct email addresses" Clinton used while she was secretary of state.

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Republicans were quick to criticize Hillary Clinton after it was revealed that the former secretary of state used private email during her time a...

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House Benghazi committee subpoenas Hillary Clinton's emails

Clinton's tweeted statement came hours after a congressional committee investigating the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, issued subpoenas for her emails.

The US House of Representatives' Select Committee on Benghazi demanded all communications from Clinton related to the incident, in which a US ambassador was killed.

The panel also sent letters to Internet companies telling them to protect any documents relevant to the ongoing investigation, Jamal Ware, communications director for the Benghazi committee, said in a statement.

Representative Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the Benghazi panel, told reporters that within two weeks, he must either have the documents or a "really good explanation" for why they may be delayed.

Republicans have been scrutinizing Clinton's actions and communications surrounding the Benghazi attack, when Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed during an assault on the U.S. consulate. Republican lawmakers believe she did not do enough to ensure the safety of Americans in Libya.

Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Benghazi committee, said the Republicans' actions have led him to believe they simply want to attack Clinton. He noted that Colin Powell, the secretary of state under former President George W. Bush, a Republican, had used personal emails.

The email controversy appeared to have caught the Clinton camp off guard when it erupted.

In an appearance in Washington on Tuesday night, Clinton avoided the topic altogether in a 30-minute speech at a gala dinner for the Emily's List political organisation.

The State Department has defended Clinton, saying that at the time there was no prohibition on using a personal email account for official business as long as it was preserved.

But experts have called her use of personal email highly unusual in an era when most U.S. government electronic emails are archived, and that her practise possibly left her communications open to hacking.

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Republicans subpoena Hillary Clinton's emails on Benghazi

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After news spread that Hillary Clinton relied exclusively on a personal email account while she served as secretary of state, the House Select Committee on Benghazi has sent subpoenas to the State Department today explicitly requesting all of her communications related to Libya.

The Select Committee on Benghazi today issued subpoenas for all communications of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton related to Libya and to the State Department for other individuals who have information pertinent to the investigation, Jamal Ware, communications director for the committee, wrote in a statement. The Committee also has issued preservation letters to internet firms informing them of their legal obligation to protect all relevant documents.

The documents are the latest request from Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the committee, as his investigation into the deadly attack continues.

You do not need a law degree to have an understanding of how troubling this is, Gowdy told reporters. There are chain of custody issues, there are preservation of materials and documents issues ... there are best evidence issues, in addition to asking about archives and what safeguards may have been in place to protect this information."

While Gowdy stressed that Clinton had more than one private email account that she used during her tenure at the State Department, her lawyer wrote the committee today hoping to clear up any misconception.

Secretary Clinton used one email account when corresponding with anyone, from Department officials to friends to family, Clintons attorney David E. Kendall wrote in an email to the committee. "A month after she left the Department, Gawker published her email address and so she changed the address on her account. At the time, the emails were provided to the Department last year this new address appeared on the copies as the sender, and not the address she used as Secretary. This address on the account did not exist until March 2103 [sic], after her tenure as Secretary.

Nevertheless, Ware maintained that the Select Committee on Benghazi is in possession of records with two separate and distinct email addresses used by former Secretary Clinton and dated during the time she was Secretary of State.

"Without access to the relevant electronic information and stored data on the server -- which was reportedly registered to her home -- there is no way the Committee, or anyone else, can fully explain why the Committee uncovered two email addresses, Ware said in a statement. As Chairman Gowdy has noted, this is why former Secretary Clintons exclusive use of personal emails to conduct official U.S. government business is so problematic and raises significant issues for transparency. The American people have a right to a full accounting of all the former Secretarys emails, and the Committee is committed to working to uncover all the facts.

Gowdy said the committee discovered the existence of Clintons personal email accounts after obtaining documents late last summer that had not been previously produced to any committee investigating the deadly terrorist attack.

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Benghazi House Committee Subpoenas Hillary Clinton Emails