It's amazing what a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit can force the government to do.
Thanks to VICE News, the rest of us may get a look at "portions" of 55,000 emails sent and received during Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State. More from AP:
The State Department has proposed releasing portions of 55,000 pages of emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton by next January.
The department made the proposal in a federal court filing Monday night, in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Vice News.
In the filing, John F. Hackett, who is responsible for the department's responses to FOIA requests, said that following a review of the emails, the department will post the releasable portions of the 55,000 pages on its website. He said the review will take until the end of the year — and asked the court to adopt a completion date of Jan. 15, 2016, to factor in the holidays. That's just a couple of weeks before the Iowa caucuses and early state primaries that follow.
Clinton has apparently called on the State Department to release the records, but keep in mind that although 55,000 is substantial, the emails will no doubt be heavily redacted. Further, we still have no idea what kind of information Clinton was hiding in personal email accounts on a personal server hosted in her house. Clinton will no doubt use this email release to frame her lack of transparency as old news.
Clinton has been asked to testify in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi about the emails and the deletion of thousands of others. Her attorney said she is willing to testify, but only once, and therefore her testimony has been delayed by Chairman Trey Gowdy.
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