Under pressure from a federal judge and
from the press, who’d already obtained many of the emails, the State
Department on Friday afternoon finally released the first sliver of
former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails showing her
communications concerning Benghazi.
The 296 messages released are a fraction of the 30,000 or so she kept on her private server but which she has now deemed to be public business, and — at the prodding of Congress and the department to live up to her obligations under the law — has now turned over to the administration.
All of the messages Friday relate to Benghazi, the Libyan city where a terrorist assault in 2012 left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead. But many of the emails had already been disclosed by the New York Times earlier this week, undercutting much of the State Department’s efforts.
SEE ALSO: Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi emails show conversations with Sidney Blumenthal, banned adviser
Rep. Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina Republican leading the House investigation into the Benghazi attacks, said the emails should be read in the context that they were all hand-selected by Mrs. Clinton, who has said only she had the duty to decide which of her emails were official business. Her lawyers have said she erased all of the messages after turning some of them back over to the Obama administration, her former employer.
“To assume a self-selected public record is complete, when no one with a duty or responsibility to the public had the ability to take part in the selection, requires a leap in logic no impartial reviewer should be required to make and strains credibility,” said Mr. Gowdy, whose probe forced the State Department to acknowledge Mrs. Clinton’s use of a personal email broke with recommended practice for government employees.
Mr. Gowdy also said the State Department is still withholding emails among Mrs. Clinton’s top aides concerning Benghazi. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/22/clinton-classified-benghazi-email-private-server/
The 296 messages released are a fraction of the 30,000 or so she kept on her private server but which she has now deemed to be public business, and — at the prodding of Congress and the department to live up to her obligations under the law — has now turned over to the administration.
All of the messages Friday relate to Benghazi, the Libyan city where a terrorist assault in 2012 left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead. But many of the emails had already been disclosed by the New York Times earlier this week, undercutting much of the State Department’s efforts.
SEE ALSO: Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi emails show conversations with Sidney Blumenthal, banned adviser
Rep. Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina Republican leading the House investigation into the Benghazi attacks, said the emails should be read in the context that they were all hand-selected by Mrs. Clinton, who has said only she had the duty to decide which of her emails were official business. Her lawyers have said she erased all of the messages after turning some of them back over to the Obama administration, her former employer.
“To assume a self-selected public record is complete, when no one with a duty or responsibility to the public had the ability to take part in the selection, requires a leap in logic no impartial reviewer should be required to make and strains credibility,” said Mr. Gowdy, whose probe forced the State Department to acknowledge Mrs. Clinton’s use of a personal email broke with recommended practice for government employees.
Mr. Gowdy also said the State Department is still withholding emails among Mrs. Clinton’s top aides concerning Benghazi. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/22/clinton-classified-benghazi-email-private-server/
