State Dep’t misses court deadline for Clinton emails

Thomson ReutersU.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens to her introduction at a campaign event in Sioux CityWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department has long failed to produce complete and timely records in response to public information requests, its independent auditor said as the department released its latest batch of emails related to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

During a 2011 e-mail exchange, Hillary Clinton said she was “surprised” a subordinate at the State Department would use a private e-mail account to conduct government business – despite using a private account herself during her entire tenure as secretary of state.

Grassley, the Iowa chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the email created the impression that Clinton was instructing an aide “to remove the headings from a classified document and send it to her in an unsecure manner”.

The report found personnel responsible for Freedom of Information Act requests in the secretary’s office often missed deadlines and didn’t meet legal requirements for conducting complete searches.

The exchange was part of the 3,000 pages of emails released in the early morning hours on Friday, a week after the court-ordered goal.

In a series of emails sent in June, 2011, between Clinton and deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan – who is now a foreign-policy adviser on her campaign – we get what could be considered a smoking gun.

Clinton writes back to Sullivan, “If they can’t, turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure”.

The “nonpaper” Clinton refers to is a term commonly used in diplomatic and worldwide organization circles, indicating a document that does not reflect the offiicial position of the entity that produced it. Nonpapers are often circulated within global bodies as tools for discussion. Now, the total number of classified emails found on Clinton’s personal server has increased to 1,340. They also claim that almost 1,300 emails contained this classified information.

“Some of them are strong Republicans due to their religious issues”, she said.

An FOIA request was filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in December 2012, just before Hillary left office, specifically asking if she used an email account other than state.gov for government business. “Generally speaking, I can say that just because a document is sent via a secure method doesn’t mean that it’s classified”. Clinton has repeatedly tried to down play the significance of her private server use throughout the past year.

The email chain shows that a diplomatic officer named John Godfrey wrote a detailed summary of information about Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi that was soon forwarded to Clinton. This point did not escape RNC chair Reince Priebus, who implied in a statement that the State Department was covering up for Clinton.

Pompeo said he is “anxious” for the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine whether they will bring charges against Clinton as quickly as possible.

This isn’t the first time Clinton has had fax issues at the State Department.