The State Department will release some, but not all, of the last batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails this Friday, but is still hoping to release the rest in a month, and said that’s still the plan even though that plan has been challenged in court.
“We did ask for a one-month extension until February 29, to finish our production of these emails,” spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday.
Last week, State filed in federal court for a formal extension in the case of Leopold vs. U.S. Department of State. State cited an “oversight” that caused it to miscount the number of emails remaining, and said it needs more time to produce the remaining emails.
Toner said so far, the court has said nothing to dissuade it from getting more time. “At the point in time, we have not received a decision on whether this extension will be granted,” Toner said.
Toner said that while State will miss the Friday deadline, the Department “is going to strive to produce as many documents as we possibly can.”
“I can assure you that the team working on this has been working long hours, they even came in this past weekend during the snowstorm,” Toner said. “But we also recognize for a number of reasons that we’re not going to get there this month, we need an additional month.”
Skeptics argue that the timing could be helpful to Clinton, as not all the emails will be released before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucus, as originally planned, and any bombshells could be saved for a later batch.
