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WASHINGTON -- When Hillary Clinton traveled more than a million miles as Secretary of State, she famously carried her Blackberry with her.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Tuesday that Clinton's use of a personal email account --rather than a government account -- to conduct business was not illegal.

In this Oct. 18, 2011, file photo, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton checks her Blackberry from a desk inside a C-17 military plane upon her departure from Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, bound for Tripoli, Libya.

AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool, File

"There was no prohibition on using a non State.gov account for official business, as long as it is preserved," Harf said.

But Clinton aides did not submit those emails to government archives, as required by a 2009 law. They claim nine out ten emails she sent were to State Department colleagues and therefore in the department's computer system.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said there was "every expectation they would be retained."

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