Attorneys for the New York Times will appear in federal court Tuesday to request a full release of more than 1,000 emails Defense Secretary Ash Carter sent over a private email account, according to a report.
The New York Times obtained a redacted copy of Carter’s emails through a Freedom of Information Act request in December, but those emails were overly redacted, they claim. Citing unwarranted black-outs, the Times additionally filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, seeking a less-redacted version of Carter’s emails.
Carter, who took over the Pentagon in February 2015, used a private email account to conduct official governmental business for at least two months. According to the Times, this practice continued until Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff, directed the secretary to stop.
The lawsuit has largely gone under the radar in light of the Hillary Clinton email scandal, but Carter’s use raises concerns about security and whether government officials are using private emails to undercut the Freedom of Information Act, the only way of making governmental business public without going to court.
“The Pentagon should be held to account for whether the redactions are appropriate,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. “The abuse of FOIA exemptions is a problem for the public’s right to know, and that problem has reached record levels under the Obama Administration. The public’s business ought to be public, with the exception of legitimate national security concerns, which don’t seem to apply here, in the Pentagon’s own words.”
Carter’s emails won’t likely raise the same classification issues that Clinton’s did. His emails reveal he discussed PBS documentaries, letters of recommendation for former employees, and received a congratulatory note from Facebook’s COO for creating a Facebook page.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook has since called Carter’s private email usage “a mistake.”
The Campaign for Accountability requested the Department of Justice open an investigation into Carter’s private email use, however the Justice Department declined. A spokesperson at the Campaign for Accountability responded saying, “How can one Cabinet official be publicly pilloried and criminally investigated for her use of a private email account, while another walks away unscathed?”
Jacqueline Klimas contributed to this report.
