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Hillary Rodham Clinton insisted Tuesday that she had broken no rules by using a private email account to conduct government business as secretary of State, even as she disclosed that her aides had deleted more than 30,000 emails that she deemed personal.

While she sought to quell a controversy that threatens to mar the debut of her expected presidential candidacy, Clinton may have only fueled it with a 20-minute news conference her first in two years that raised fresh questions about her actions.

Insisting that her approach was fully consistent with administration rules, she said she would not allow investigators from Congress to examine the private computer server that processed and stored the emails at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

The former senator from New York said the server had been installed to ensure digital security for her husband, former President Clinton. She said it was still guarded by the Secret Service and had never been hacked.

Nonetheless, she said that last fall she approved the destruction of slightly more than half of the emails she wrote or received as Americas top diplomat during President Obamas first term because they were private and personal. The remainder were forwarded to the State Department.

No one wants their personal emails made public, Clinton told reporters who packed a hallway outside the United Nations Security Council after she had delivered a speech at a conference on empowering women. Two dozen TV crews ensured her comments ran live on several networks.

Clinton said the deleted messages included private emails with her husband, or involved personal matters like her yoga classes or planning for the 2010 wedding of their daughter, Chelsea, or the 2011 funeral of her mother, Dorothy Rodham.

So far, polls indicate the controversy has done little to shake the former first ladys standing among Democratic voters, who overwhelmingly support her all-but-announced bid for the White House.

Many were quick to dismiss the criticism as a stew of partisan smear and media hype, even as critics delighted in reviving her familys mine-strewn political history and her penchant for secrecy and hunkering down.

Yet her comparatively laggard reaction to the storm, allowing more than a week to pass before she offered a substantive response, contributed to concerns among Democratic Party professionals that her political operation had gone rusty or was maladapted to the 24/7 demands of todays campaign world.

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Hillary Clinton tries to end controversy over private email account