State Department seeks 1-month extension on Clinton emails

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By BRADLEY KLAPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department asked a federal court Friday for a one-month extension to publish the last of Hillary Clinton's emails during her time as secretary of state, citing a complex review of some messages across different agencies of the government.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the department wouldn't be able to meet its court-mandated goal of Jan. 29. About 9,400 of 55,000 pages are left, but Toner said those remaining "contain a large amount of material that required interagency review."

The department will make public as many as possible next week, he said, but is asking for the final deadline to be pushed back until Feb. 29.

"State Department staff have been working extremely hard to process these emails, and we are committed to getting them out," Toner said. "The court's goal for this month's production represented the largest number of pages to date. The remaining emails are also the most complex to process."

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7a7728a7c5a14a62a366e3d1b6fdc324/state-department-seeks-1-month-extension-clinton-emails

[Purveyor]

1. Cover up. Hiding the docs until after NH & Iowa. Must be some damning stuff in this next batch. nt

[Proserpina]

2. It could just be an unholy mess

Perhaps I'm not cynical enough for this game...

[Purveyor]

8. My past career is legal document production. This could have been completed and presented weeks,

if not months ago.

[ViseGrip]

27. Oh my, more time is needed, until after many vote. Indict her already!

[magical thyme]

5. and NV and SC...nt

[karynnj]

9. Or an admission that those remaining have classification problems that other departments need to

respond on.

I have followed the SD briefings on this and they have hewed VERY VERY close to speaking JUST of the process. They are working to get all the emails out in a timely manner, but any email that contains information that came from another department has to pass through them to determine what the redactions should be. Apparently the organization that produced the info has the right to determine classification.


The Clinton campaign and Clinton herself has repeatedly denied that anything MARKED classified was in the email. However, no one in the government has been willing to say that no information that was classified at that moment was included. It appears that the SD had moved through the emails that were easy to process - those with nothing remotely classified and ones that were purely from State Department information.

It seems that they are saying that some of the emails that were pushed to other organizations have not yet been processed by them. It has seemed that each bunch released has included a higher percent needing some redaction each time.

I agree that the timing of this stinks -- and blame HRC for sitting on this for as long as she did, then giving it to the SD on paper --- even as she asked for it on a thumb drive for her lawyer!

[asuhornets]

11. Whatever

If Hillary Clinton did anything wrong everyone would have known during her 11-hour testimony. She was so Presidential. Bernie Sanders would have melted under all the scrutiny.

[arcane1]

15. Welcome back!

Hopefully that timeout will pass by quickly

[catnhatnh]

19. You mean the 11 hours about the 13 hours???

Because that has nothing to do with the 55,000 scrubbed E-mails...

[karynnj]

28. I seriously doubt that Bernie would have melted - I have seen him at VT town halls

What you miss is that this is NOT about Benghazi. This is about the fact that she did not archive her email when she left - and she had a completely private server that she used for her work as SoS.

This meant that during her term and the first two years of Kerry's, any FOIA could not get many relevant emails. It also means that the State Department not only had to deal with correcting FOIA - it was charged with putting out all her email -- and even putting it online due to Clinton's attempt to end the story and claim she was very transparent.

[asuhornets]

29. You sound like a right-winger on DU.

I can't believe this!!!

[karynnj]

31. I have been a liberal Democrat since I listened to JFK's speeches on the radio

as a preteen. I canvassed for McGovern ... and many other Democrats. You could look back at my long posting history here. No hint of right wing anywhere.

What exactly do you have a problem with. Like many Democrats, I have long considered that transparency is important to clean government. I think Clinton made a grievous error when she chose to ignore Obama's call for transparency because she thought a private server could help her avoid potential embarrassing emails if anything failed. Instead the negative is that she did this -- and it has led to the numbers she has on trustwortiness -- numbers that had looked fine before this came out.

Note that I prefer to respond rather than alert, but I do think you need to think before throwing around claims that people here are RW.

[leveymg]

33. We don't always agree, but I always look forward to reading your posts

And thoughtful comments. Thanks for what you do here. Don't let anyone try to tell you how to be a good Democrat. You already are.

[asuhornets]

34. Hillary Clinton is not the only Presidential candidate that used private emails...

Mitt Romney did it as Governor of Massachusetts. No one made a big deal about that. It is very unfortunate to hear democrats on this site to repeat right-wing politics. You know as well as others on this site that the Republican is making the email an issue to derail her political ambitious of becoming President. And you are doing the exact same thing.

[karynnj]

35. The Governor of Massachusetts does not have much connection to national security and

it was a big issue.

The Republicans will attack anything that IS and issue with any Democratic candidate. Should I call every Hillary supporter using the word "socialist" a RW republican because Kasich and others have said the same thing?

If there ends up being a problem because she used a private server - something even Romney did not do when he running state business - the one who will have derailed her ambitions is Hillary Rodham Clinton when she made that fateful decision. The statesman, former politician, I admire the most is John Kerry, the second is President Obama -- the fact is I care more that this had (and has) the ability to tarnish their reputations as well as Clintons. Frankly, she does not match either in integrity and honesty.

[asuhornets]

36. The hatred for Hillary Clinton is real folks even at DU..

We don't have to go to Fox News anymore..It's right here!!

[karynnj]

37. I don't hate HRC -- but because of various things she has done I don't like her

However, I don't have to like a candidate to vote for them if I think they have the values, positions that I think a President should have. Though I have some reservations on her character, I think that - other than on foreign policy where she is a liberal hawk - I have no problem with her positions. However as I posted in the worst of the 2008 anger - when George Bush vetoed the expansion of SCHIP , I knew I would vote for any Democrat - because ALL the Republicans would do what he did and no Democrat would.

[asuhornets]

38. OK n/t

[ladjf]

26. I think that the fix is in. nt

[LanternWaste]

32. Precisely how is a presidential candidate ordering the State Department what to do and when to do it

Precisely how is a presidential candidate ordering the State Department what to do and when to do it? Or is yours merely conjecture and prophecy?

[retrowire]

3. are the emails important or not???

Damn it government would you just get shit done?

[magical thyme]

4. "inter-agency review?" trying to hide the TOP SECRET/SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAM emails

until *after* IA, NH, NV and SC?

[840high]

6. Sounds like it.

[karynnj]

39. The problem is not the review - but that someone really really screwed up in not sending any earlier

I don't think this helps Clinton. It leaves the question open longer - with more stories - and this emphasizes that 7000 emails of the ones left might contain classified info that originated in another agency. Not to mention, the SD will put what they have out on January 29th -- that will be a story like it always is , with the added story that there are still many out of which a high percent will be upgraded to classified.

Not to mention, getting all the email out does not end anything. The FBI investigation may or may not end -- and if it does it might not have a clear cut clearing of Clinton. In addition, the Republicans will always point to the fact that Clinton people did the processing to determine what the State Department would get.

[Jarqui]

7. Feb 29 isn't just Iowa & NH, it basically gets her past

Super Tuesday on March 1 because no one can digest nearly 10,000 pages of emails over night and get that out into the media and to the electorate while the polls are open the next day.

This is just the end of the batch of emails Hillary produced. Someone has sued to get the batch of deleted emails the FBI recovered (that are supposed to be all personal - and I don't think they can get those)

[CharlotteVale]

10. How convenient.

[uhnope]

12. it's neverending. a story of hubris

[peacebird]

13. Do not give it to them. Make them add staff if needed, but release the last of these emails

It is long past time for this to be resolved.

[karynnj]

24. The problem is that they just can't "add people"

Only people who know the ins and outs of how things are classified and how they deal with FOIA could do this.

What I suspect - with no knowledge at all - is this is seen as a lose/lose job. The people who are in the position to consider this job - even when they first spoke of wanting 50 more people - had to know at least three things:

- It was going to entail tedious work done for many many hours.

- There was a significant risk of being either the person who missed something that should be redacted or a person allowing something out that harmed Clinton (bye bye job chances in a Clinton administration).

So, for a job with potential headaches and downsides, where is the chance that this becomes a resume builder. From the point the State Department in 2014 - a year after the Clinton people left realized that they had a major problem - they did not have most of Clinton's email - this has been a no win situation for the people remaining.

They asked the newly confirmed state IG - a position not filled for the 4 Clinton years - to investigate and make recommendations for both how to handle the mess and what to do going forward. The SD briefings have pointed out that they have been following all the recommendations - distancing themselves from the Clinton practices. In addition, a career professional was hired to lead the effort both on getting the emails out and developing practices consistent with the IG's recommendations.

Ever played hot potato?

Not to mention, anyone saying this helps Clinton is likely wrong. Consider the two possibilities:

1) State had no problem and put every thing out on January 29 - right before the Iowa caucus. What is clear is that these remaining about 9,000 emails include about 7,000 that they need other departments to approve or ask for redactions as they include possible classified information that originated there.

Even considering the best case and nothing major is found, like every other dump, some will be highlighted - either because they amuse the media or they fit someone's agenda. In addition, it will be noted that the final tally of how many emails were redacted because they contain information now classified. Like every other time, this is not a good story for Clinton.

Finally, would that mean the story is over -- not really. The overal story is still what it was and it shows more importance given to Hillary's privacy than to running an open administration or following the President's guidelines.

2) They - as they said - miss the deadline, and put out everything they have by the deadline. This leads to same negative story as every dump -- AND the story that there are 7000 or so being vetted by other departments because they could contain information that originated in those departments that they want redacted.

This is then left hanging over HRC's head -- and the worst solution is if the SD is required to put out daily or weekly chunks as they are resolved - leading to - daily or weekly stories.

Those thinking this helps Clinton have to be assuming that there is a smoking gun -- and it will be one of the last things to surface. (In fact, if there was -- I assume that Biden or someone else would be running and HRC would have quietly backed out assured of a pardon. It is nuts to think that anyone would want it to come out after she was the nominee.) Personally, though I think it showed lamentable judgment, I seriously doubt there is a smoking gun. After all - what would it be?

[zentrum]

16. She doesn't want it

…..out until after the primaries.

Wants the "Bernie is a Commy" thing to dominate the headlines.

I will vote in the GE for whomever is the Dem candidate, but HRC is making me feel worse and worse about it every day.

[arcane1]

17. Why should she bother to EARN our vote if she knows it's guaranteed? n/t

[zentrum]

18. Agree but it feels

…unthinkable to not vote at all in the GE. The alternative is just too destructive…...

[arcane1]

20. I will definitely have zero patience for anyone who sits out the election this year.

If nothing else, there are too many important things at the state and local that cannot be ignored.

[asuhornets]

21. Guaranteed?

She is out there campaigning like everyone else. She has definitely earned my vote by releasing detailed policy reports such as healthcare, national security, etc. Bernie is the one that needs to work harder at earning people's vote.

[karynnj]

25. She is not in control of the release - and the longer and slower the release is,

the worse for her.

Do you think it helps that the story is there are 7000 emails that need to be examined by other departments that originated the info included?

This was a real screwup, but this was never an easy thing to do. I would assume that for the people working on this, their biggest fear might be not catching something that really should have been redacted. That also may explain why so many were sent to other departments. The thing hard to get is that the person managing the entire thing missed that they were not regularly sending these out - I don't get why that was not done periodically.

[zentrum]

40. The thing is,

….I'm not sure most people "care about her damn emails", as Bernie so gallantly said, but the word "Commie" an "Communist" still knee-jerk scares a lot of Americans.

[karynnj]

41. However, there may or may not be a problem in her damn emails, but Bernie Sanders has never been a

Communist. The fact that he polls as well as he does - when many do not know him well nationally suggests that there is NOT the equation of Bernie = Commie that we are now told to fear. As Bernie supposedly told Jane, "You"ll like Iowa because it's a lot like Vermont". I think that the vast areas of America that are rural -- some very red -- might if they are allowed to really hear him and meet him be surprised that small town Vermont -- and that is almost ALL of Vermont is really a lot like them. Seriously there are not enough votes in Burlington - the 42,000 resident biggest city in VT -- to have made him Senator or accounted for his 80 plus approval rating.

One big surprise might be as a former VT chair of AARP told a group I was in is that he is incredibly popular with VT seniors who see him as caring about them and an advocate. In VT, the seniors and vets are two groups that love him. Not what you expect if you stereotype him as a communist.

[Omaha Steve]

22. This is called a Friday news dump

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

23. Ah run run run run ah runaway!

[restorefreedom]

30. must have been the snowstorm