Powell, Rice also used personal email

WASHINGTON -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the immediate staff of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also received classified national security information on their personal email accounts, according to a memo by the State Department watchdog that was released Thursday.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server has dogged her presidential campaign. Her campaign could try to blunt the criticism with the news her predecessors in Republican administrations might have received such information on nonsecure servers.

Steve Linick, the inspector general for the State Department, said in a memo dated Wednesday two emails sent to Powell and 10 emails sent to Rice's staff contained classified national security information. Powell and Rice were the top diplomats under Republican President George W. Bush.

"None of the material was marked as classified, but the substance of the material and 'NODIS' (No Distribution) references in the body or subject lines of some of the documents suggested that the documents could be potentially sensitive," Linick wrote in the memo.