Hillary Clinton Private Emails Won’t Be Released Until January 2016

The U.S. State Department will not release controversial Hillary Clinton emails until January 2016. In accordance with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, 55,000 pages of emails are supposed to be released. Vice News filed the lawsuit in January to demand the release of Clinton’s emails, which she had exchanged on a private server.

John Hackett, acting director of information programs and services at the State Department, said in a declaration filed in U.S. District Court in Washington that the review would be completed by the end of 2015. He said that the proposed date for the release of emails would be Jan. 15, 2016.

“The department understands the considerable public interest in these records and is endeavoring to complete the review and production of them as expeditiously as possible,” Politico quoted Hackett as saying. “The collection is, however, voluminous and, due to the breadth of topics, the nature of the communications, and the interests of several agencies, presents several challenges.”

Clinton announced her presidential campaign in April. However, it has not been smooth so far due to the controversial emails. The former secretary of state said that she would like the public to know about the private emails. While she claimed that she had turned over all “relevant” emails to the State Department, she admitted that she had deleted a number of other emails from the server. (Clinton ran the State Department from 2009 to 2013.)

Around 1,000 emails are supposed to be reviewed every week. The review will be done by the FOIA office as well as subject-matter experts. The National Security Council, CIA and Defense Department will also be involved if required.

The New York Times quoted the filing, which said that nine FOIA reviewers, two case analysts and a project manager would work full time for the review. Information technology specialists and other analysts will also “provide collateral assistance” during the review process.

It was revealed in March that Clinton had used a private email account on a private server while she was supposed to use an official State Department account. The revelation started a huge political controversy just before she kicked off her presidential campaign for 2016.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au.