State Dept.’s video ‘glitch’ still a mystery two weeks later

“We continue to review this incident, as well as our own internal processes and procedures,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau. “As Assistant Secretary [John] Kirby noted, we have an obligation to be transparent, and are committed to that principle.”

When asked when the review might be complete, Trudeau said the department is “still working through it.”

Two weeks ago, Trudeau told reporters that a “glitch” caused several minutes of the video to disappear. After it was discovered, the department quickly restored it.

The missing video was only noticed after Fox News reported it, and reported that the missing section included a key conversation in which a spokesman seemed to admit that the government might not always tell the truth publicly when talking about international negotiations.

The question at issue was when the Obama administration started the Iran talks. The administration has said they started in 2013, after the more moderate Hassan Rouhani became president of Iran.

But there have been signs that the talks actually started in 2011 or 2012, which has led to Republican criticism that Obama wanted to start the negotiations regardless of whether moderates in leading the country.

In 2013, then-State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked whether the government ever lies to cover up those sorts of details.

“James, I think there are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that,” Psaki replied. That section, along with other portions of the briefing, were cut from the video earlier this month.

Despite speculation that the government didn’t want that video to be accessible to critics of the Iran deal, Trudeau said on May 10 that the problem was caused by a “glitch.”

“There was a glitch in the State Department video,” she said.

State hasn’t been asked publicly about the once-missing, now-returned video for more than a week.