FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: NARA Caught Off Guard by Clinton E-mails; Clinton E-mails Overwhelm State Dept.

FOIA News (2015-2023)Kevin SchmidtComment

Federal Records Agency’s Top Lawyer Expressed “Concern,” Surprise At Clinton’s Private Email Use, Internal Emails Reveal

By Andrew Kaczynski and IIan Ben-Meir, Buzzfeed, May 12, 2015

The top lawyer for the National Archives expressed concern in internal emails, obtained by BuzzFeed News, over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s exclusive use of personal email.

The agency, the top records-keeping authority in the federal government, was not aware of Clinton’s personal email usage until the New York Times reported on the issue in March, a spokeswoman told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday.

The internal emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show Gary Stern, the general counsel at NARA, expressing some concern and surprise after a phone conversation with New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, who broke the story. That conversation took place in March, months after Clinton’s staff sent email records to the State Department.

Read more here.

State Dept. can’t fulfill your FOIA because it’s overwhelmed by Hillary e-mails

By Al Kamen, Washington Post, May 12, 2015

The State Department’s latest defense on why it can’t comply with your ancient Freedom of Information request for documents is: Blame it on Hillary.

State says its document-reviewing personnel is too overwhelmed by reviewing those 55,000 pages of e-mails former secretary Hillary Clinton turned over last year to do much else.

That apparently means other folks, who’ve waited years on their requests for State Department documents, are being told they’ll have to wait even longer because of the Clinton review.

Read more here.