Holder used multiple email aliases as attorney general, DOJ officials reveal

March 4, 2015: Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the Justice Department in Washington. (AP)

Attorney General Eric Holder has used three different email aliases during his six years in the top job at the Justice Department, officials say.

At a time when Hillary Clinton is facing criticism for exclusively using personal email while secretary of state, DOJ officials confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that Holder had his own email quirks. While the attorney general, they say, did business on the government system, he did so under multiple names and is now on his third email address.

Officials cast Holder's email aliases as a way to avoid spam and guard against security risks -- though the use of aliases by other top officials, including former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, has raised transparency concerns in the past.

The first email alias Holder used was Henry Yearwood, a combination of the first name of an uncle and his mother's maiden name.

At some point, he changed it to David Kendricks, which was an homage to the names of two members of the 60's Motown R&B band The Temptations, Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon would not disclose Holder's third and current email alias, saying it had something to do with the name of an athlete -- but "I can't tell you that because then we'd have to change it again and we'd rather not do that with only a week or so to go," before Holder is expected to step down from his post. (The Senate is planning a vote in the coming days on confirming the nominee to replace him, Loretta Lynch.)

Senior DOJ officials, however, stress that -- unlike Clinton -- Holder has never used a private email address to do any work as the attorney general.

They say all of Holder's email addresses which he's done official business on, including the one he is presently using, are government email accounts on the @usdoj.gov domain.

"The attorney general uses a Justice Department email address to conduct official business. As with many Cabinet officials, he does not use his given name in the handle of his email address," Fallon said.

Fallon said this is similar to using "initials or numbers in an email address and helps guard against security risks and prevent his inbox from being needlessly inundated."

He also stressed that it does not "in any way impact compliance with [Freedom of Information Act] requests. The attorney general's email address is known to the individuals who process FOIA requests, and his emails are regularly produced, albeit with his exact address redacted."

Fallon said the aliases were changed twice during Holder's tenure. One of those times was because the email was accidentally divulged by a different federal agency responding to a FOIA request.

Clinton, meanwhile, held a press conference on Tuesday to respond to concerns about her personal email use. She acknowledged it would have been better to use the government system, but said she did not at the time as a matter of "convenience." She stressed that she has complied with the State Department's request to turn over work-related emails.