A federal judge has ordered the US State Department to start releasing by September 13 an additional 15,000 emails uncovered during the FBI’s investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private server. The records are among “tens of thousands” of documents found by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its probe and turned over to State, Justice Department attorney Lisa Ann Olson said Monday in court.
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The order is limited to documents related to the Benghazi attacks.
U.S. District Court Judge William P. Dimitrouleas of the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach said the emails – some of which contain references to the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya – must be made public by September 13.
After the system’s existence became more widely known, Clinton returned what she said were all her work emails to the State Department in 2014, and the department released them in batches to the public, some 30,000 in all.
Justice Department lawyers said last week that the State Department would review and turn over Clinton’s work-related emails to a conservative legal group.
Powell, who served as the nation’s top diplomat from 2001-2005 under Republican president George W. Bush, told People magazine that while he did send Clinton a memo about his own email practices, Clinton had already chosen to use personal email rather than a government account while she had the job.
The Hill, a political newspaper published in Washington, said the ruling amounts to “the drip-drip release of emails [that] will be something [the Clinton campaign must] contend with through Election Day”.
“Typical”, the campaign-related source said.
They also claimed they would need until October 14 to review the documents to determine which were work-related and to prepare those for release.
The FBI called Clinton “extremely reckless” in her handling of the emails but did not bring criminal charges against her.
The new documents are believed to consist chiefly of emails to or from Clinton, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, and may include a mix of personal and work emails.
Clinton, who is now leading Trump in opinion polls ahead of the election, has said she did not compromise classified information and used a private server for convenience, and later apologized, saying “I take responsibility”.
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It is unclear how many documents might be attachments, duplicates or exempt from release.
