GOP sues, senators press attorney general over Clinton emails
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday she hasn’t discussed the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails with the White House and doesn’t plan to.
The investigation deals with the potential mishandling of sensitive information passed through the former secretary of state’s private email server, and Lynch’s assurance to the Senate Judiciary Committee came shortly after the GOP sued for access to Clinton’s emails.
The two lawsuits spring from Freedom of Information Act requests filed last year seeking copies of emails and text messages sent or received by the Democratic presidential candidate and her top aides. In court filings, the GOP said it has not received any documents in response to the requests.
The GOP litigation brings the total to at least 34 civil suits so far involving requests for federal records related to Clinton’s service as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. The Associated Press is among those with a pending case at the Washington courthouse.
“For too long the State Department has undermined the public and the media’s legitimate right to records under the Freedom of Information Act, and it’s time it complies with the law,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said.
The State Department has released more than 52,000 pages of Clinton’s work-related emails, but her private lawyers have withheld thousands more they deemed to be personal communications unrelated to her job. Also left unresolved are questions about how Clinton and her closest aides handled classified information.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the department was aware of the RNC lawsuit but would not comment on pending litigation.
“We take court orders seriously, but I can’t go into predictions about our ability to produce what’s in these suits in a specific time frame,” he said.
The AP last year discovered Clinton’s use of the private email server, which had been set up in the basement of Clinton’s New York home by former State Department staffer Bryan Pagliano, for her to use exclusively for her work- related emails while she was secretary.
The FBI for months has investigated whether sensitive information that flowed through Clinton’s email server was mishandled. The State Department has acknowledged some emails included classified information, including at the top-secret level. Clinton has said she never sent or received anything that was marked classified at the time.