Trump’s State Department Stonewalls on Releasing Thousands of Hillary Documents
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
On Monday, Judicial Watch (JD) said the State Department, in federal court, acknowledged the existence of up to 72,000 Hillary documents, mostly unprocessed or released.
JD’s FOIA lawsuit sought disclosure of thousands of Hillary’s emails while secretary of state - from February 2009 through January 2013.
Proceedings before federal Judge James Boasberg addressed progress (or lack of it) in processing and releasing the emails - some to aide Huma Abedin, found on the laptop of her estranged husband former congressman Anthony Weiner.
Around 32,000 pages of emails were processed, another 40,000 yet to go - years after Hillary left office.
“Judicial Watch asked the court to require the State Department to identify any records from the seven FBI discs that it intends to withhold, and why, in a timely manner,” it said, adding:
“The State Department disclosed to the Court that it was adding extra resources to its FOIA operation, but would not commit to a faster production of the Clinton emails.”
On October 19, Judge Boasberg ordered the State Department to “explain how its anticipated increase in resources will affect processing of records in this case and when the processing of each disk is likely to be completed.”
Tillerson and Trump’s Justice Department dismissively claimed little public interest in her emails. Last November, the State Department was ordered to deliver 500 pages of Hillary records to JD monthly - ones found on her private server.
Only “23 batches” of documents were produced so far, said JD. At this pace, it’ll be at least until 2020 to release them all.
JD: “Clinton attempted to delete 33,000 emails from her non-government server. The FBI investigation recovered or found a number of these missing emails, many of which were government documents.”
JD’s lawsuit was filed in May 2015. JD president Tom Fitton said the following:
“Secretary Tillerson should be asked why his State Department is still sitting on a motherlode of Clinton emails.”
“It is disheartening that an administration elected to ‘drain the swamp’ is stalling the release of documents to protect Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.”
The State Department acknowledged discovery of 2,800 work-related Huma Abedin documents from the FBI on Weiner’s personal laptop.
Trump’s draining the swamp pledge was abandoned straightaway post-inauguration.
It overflows with neocons, billionaires, hawkish generals, Wall Street crooks, and other hardliners.
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