State Department officials released documents Thursday that indicated the agency asked Hillary Clinton’s top aides to hand over all copies of private email records that may be government-related at the end of July.
In more than a dozen letters produced through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, State officials indicated they were facing pressure from congressional investigators looking into Benghazi.
The process of requesting aides’ emails began in November of last year, when the agency began its efforts to recover the former secretary’s emails.
Patrick Kennedy, the agency’s top records official, pointed to a March subpoena from the House Select Committee on Benghazi in asking for personal records from Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, and Huma Abedin, her deputy.
Kennedy, who has himself been embroiled in several controversies under Clinton, sent the aides a copy of the select committee’s subpoena and asked them to submit Benghazi-related documents still in their possession.
Although Mills’ attorney requested one additional week to comply with Kennedy’s March 11 letter, the documents suggest Mills had not yet handed over her emails by early June.
More than three weeks later, Mills’ attorney responded by partially blaming the delay on a separate document request from the select committee — sent May 19 — that apparently also sought Benghazi-related emails.
Mills made her first production of documents to the State Department June 25.
A letter from Abedin’s attorney sent in late June attributed her delayed response to problems with the mail, claiming Abedin didn’t receive the State Department’s request in March because the letter was lost in the mail.
Abedin’s attorney also cited a request from the select committee, which was subsequently expanded in scope, in explaining the three-month delay in responding.
Clinton’s former deputy chief of staff and present campaign aide did not hand over records until July 9, the letters show.
By July 31, Kennedy requested all copies of any emails that could be considered a potential federal record from Mills and Abedin, whether those be in electronic, print form, or both.
The escalating internal struggle to recover the documents reflects the public scrutiny of Clinton’s email arrangement, which has grown as emerging details have painted a picture of an elaborate attempt to evade archival requirements.
