Some Clinton emails made public in inquiry

Republicans leading probe as former secretary of state campaigns for presidency

WASHINGTON— The State Department made 300 of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private emails public on Friday, the first in a batch of 50,000 messages at the centre of a tug of war between congressional Republicans and the Democratic presidential front-runner.

The emails, covering 850 pages, focus on the events surrounding a 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Republicans leading a special House committee examining the Benghazi attack have been pushing for swift release and want to focus negative attention on Clinton’s four years as secretary of state under President Barack Obama as she mounts a presidential run.

The State Department plans to carefully vet and release all the emails in batches over the coming months, following the orders of U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. He denied the agency’s request to prepare the entirety of the emails for release all at once in January.

The disclosure in early March that Clinton had used a private email service, in violation of federal procedures, set off a furor. Though Clinton insisted she was following government rules on emails, a senior State Department official said recently her use of a private email address was “not acceptable.”

The congressional committee investigating Benghazi has been pressing Clinton to testify, and has been pushing for quicker release of the documents. Clinton herself has insisted she wants the emails released as soon as possible.

Evidence to date leaves it unclear whether the emails will undermine Clinton’s claims that she never sent classified information on the private system, or raise new questions about her conduct as the nation’s chief diplomat.

Repeated congressional inquiries since 2012 have not supported claims that Clinton ignored warnings that the Benghazi mission was at risk.

Of the first set of emails, about a third showed Clinton and top aides were concerned about the attack and its political fallout.

But the messages leave many questions unanswered.

In many of them, Clinton says little more than a short sentence or two.