State Department attorneys argued the “ambitious” plan to publish all of Hillary Clinton’s private emails by the beginning of next year is preventing the agency from releasing related records in other cases.
In a hearing Tuesday for a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Citizens United, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court cast doubt on the State Department’s argument that processing the requested Clinton records will not be completed for weeks.
The State Department earlier this month attempted to push back on a Sept. 13 deadline, which the agency itself had set in an earlier court hearing for the Citizens United case.
The hearing was called to weigh the State Department’s request for more time to hand over responsive documents.
The State Department has identified 13 emails related to Benghazi that it has said it plans to withhold under FOIA exemptions.
Sullivan is also presiding over a high-profile Judicial Watch case, which prompted the State Department to release dozens of Abedin’s private emails Monday. He noted a number of similarities between the Citizens United case and the Judicial Watch case.
State Department attorneys argued the agency would not be able to hand over the last of the requested documents until Dec. 9. They said dozens of part-time employees had been brought in to work “demoralizing” hours — including nights and weekends — to screen the records of Clinton and two of her top aides, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin.
“Everyone works hard,” Sullivan told the agency’s legal team in response.
Sullivan questioned why the government needed to take until December to produce the documents when it had said it could perform the necessary searches by late October.
“How long does it take to perform a computer search? You press a button,” Sullivan said.
State’s legal team said it doesn’t yet “know how many documents we’re dealing with” because not all of the records have been converted to an electronic form. The attorneys argued the agency’s resources were strapped by the more than 100 FOIA cases now pending against the State Department.
While all of Abedin’s records have been downloaded into the computer, records for Cheryl Mills have not yet been digitized.
Sullivan ordered the agency to complete digitization of records for Mills and Abedin and conduct searches of the documents by Oct. 2. By that date, the State Department will need to have identified how many documents fall within the scope of Citizens United’s request.
Caroline Anderson, the State Department attorney, said the records for Mills and Abedin could contain classified information. She said the agency was handling “thousands of documents” that were provided by the two Clinton aides.
The State Department attorneys noted the law does not obligate the government to seek records not already in its possession — an argument it has used against seeking additional data from the FBI.
But attorneys for Citizens United argued a simple keyword search for documents responsive to the group’s FOIA request should not take more than a month unless the agency is “prioritizing other work.”
“This case is important,” Sullivan said. “Everyone is clamoring for information.”
Citizens United is seeking records related to Mills and Abedin, especially of the unusual employment arrangement that allowed Abedin to collect paychecks from the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and a consulting firm called Teneo Strategies.
Citizens United’s legal team pointed to an email chain discussing Benghazi talking points, which the government has described in court documents but declined to release, as evidence of the State Department’s refusal to cooperate in the case.
The agency has struggled to account for all documents created by Clinton and her top aides as a barrage of FOIA requests have bottlenecked in the State Department’s records office.
Clinton confirmed in a sworn declaration filed with the court Aug. 8 that Abedin used an account on the private network she had reportedly set up in her Chappaqua, N.Y., home.
On her account, “[email protected],” Abedin discussed travel plans and sensitive meetings for the secretary of state. She began handing over copies of her private emails to the State Department in July.
Citizens United’s attorneys said the government’s attempts to contact Abedin in order to request her records were “inexplicably difficult.”
Abedin presently serves in a senior position on Clinton’s presidential campaign.
In the Judicial Watch case, the FBI rebuffed Sullivan’s order that investigators provide information about its investigation of Clinton’s server to the State Department.
The law enforcement agency refused to confirm or deny the existence of such an investigation, although Clinton’s lawyer has publicly acknowledged the probe.
Various FOIA lawsuits for Clinton-related records have forced the State Department to divulge details of the controversial email arrangement.
A lawsuit filed by Vice News, for example, will force the agency to publish a batch of Clinton’s emails at the end of every month until January 2016.
David Bossie, president of Citizens United, said he was “pleased” with the results of Tuesday’s hearing.
“We’re just looking for the answers, whatever those are,” Bossie told reporters outside the courthouse.
The case will be back before Sullivan on Oct. 5, at which the time the government will have to detail the relevant documents it uncovers through the searches.
Citizens United filed the first of the three FOIA requests involved in the lawsuit in June 2012.
One request seeks communications between Clinton aides and officials affiliated with the Clinton Foundation. Records identified in a search for that request included Benghazi-related discussions, although those were among the 13 documents that the State Department withheld.
None of the requests involved in the lawsuit explicitly sought Benghazi-related material.
Bossie said the House Select Committee on Benghazi has yet to obtain the Benghazi email chain mentioned in the hearing Tuesday, despite issuing a subpoena earlier this year for such records.
