The State Department is not planning to search Hillary Clinton’s email server as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a conservative watchdog group, according to a court record filed Friday afternoon.
The State Department said it has made a good faith effort to respond to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request for records about long-time Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s employment status. It says that it is not in possession of the server, which has been turned over to the Justice Department by Clinton’s attorney.
The State Department also cited Clinton’s recent certification under penalty of perjury that the 55,000 documents she turned over are the only emails that “were or potentially were federal records” as the basis for why no further search was necessary. The State Department said that they have already done a search of the emails in their possession and found no relevant documents.
The State Department’s status update was ordered by U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Emmet Sullivan earlier this week.
State Department lawyers also wrote in the status update that it is not “currently working with DOJ, the FBI, or other government agencies to search former Secretary Clinton’s private email server for information responsive to plaintiff’s FOIA request.”
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called the State Department’s response as “woefully deficient, misleading, and contemptuous of the court’s orders” and that the group will seek relief from the court.
“Now we know that the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton have joined hands in this email scandal. The State Department relies on the half-baked, vague declaration by Hillary Clinton and a misleading letter by her lawyer to try to avoid its obligations to produce records under the Freedom of Information Act,” Fitton said in a statement. “It is now clear that Mrs. Clinton is withholding servers and emails from the FBI and Justice Department, and Judge Sullivan is being misled to conclude otherwise.”
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/state-dept-wont-search-clinton-server-121376.html#ixzz3irSkfRu5
