December 31, 2015
WASHINGTON, DC – The State Department released another 5,500 pages of emails from former secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server on Thursday, pushing the total pages released so far to more than 40,000.
December 31, 2015
WASHINGTON, DC – The State Department released another 5,500 pages of emails from former secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server on Thursday, pushing the total pages released so far to more than 40,000.
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens as she meets with members of the Suarez family, a mixed status immigrant family originally from Honduras now living on Long Island, New York, before addressing the 2015 National Immigrant Integration Conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, December 14, 2015. REUTERS
The department has been releasing batches monthly since June to comply with a judge’s order that they be made public on a rolling basis until all 55,000 pages are released next month.
With the New Year’s Eve batch, the total so far fell short of the order that State release 82% — roughly 45,000 pages — by the end of the year.
“We have worked diligently to come as close to the goal as possible, but with the large number of documents involved and the holiday schedule we have not met the goal this month,” the department said in a statement. “To narrow that gap, the State Department will make another production of former Secretary Clinton’s email sometime next week.”
The latest release includes roughly 3,100 emails that date from 2009 to 2013. Among them are gushing praise in January 2012 for Clinton's daughter from a State employee ("Chelsea Clinton did a really great job moderating a session") and the U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine at the time, John Tefft, who attended a speech by the younger Clinton ("A great job cultivating a positive image of the US here. No exaggeration.").
"As you know, hearing nice things about your children is as good as it gets," Clinton replied to an aide who passed along the praise. "Thanks."
Clinton’s hair was the topic of a May 2012 exchange with Judith McHale, who was nominee at the time to be undersecretary for public diplomacy.
“Fun seeing the great press you are getting on all things sartorial and hair related! Who would have thunk it at this stage in our lives,” McHale wrote.
“Ain’t it weird? But, I’m not complaining,” Clinton replied.
In another email, Clinton aide Philippe Reines provides a flow chart showing who has riding privileges with Clinton, laying out a graphic pecking order that includes breakdowns of what to do with ambassadors who are tolerable — yes, they can ride — or intolerable — not if the ride is 10 minutes or longer.
Also among the correspondence is an exchange about the now-famous photo of Clinton wearing sunglasses as she checks her BlackBerry on a plane. Her chief of staff forwarded an email with the subject line "Photo gone viral!" in April 2012.
"Why now? That was on the way to Libya?" Clinton replied.
"You look cute," Cheryl Mills responded.
Previous email batches have consisted largely of news clippings and similarly routine, and sometimes entertaining, exchanges with her top aides. In one 2012 missive she referred to Mitt Romney as “mittens” and Newt Gingrich as “grinch.” In another, she sought help finding what channel Showtime was in Washington so she could watch Homeland.
Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, has come under heavy criticism for using the private server while she was secretary of State. The FBI still is investigating whether government information was mishandled with the setup.
Courtesy: USA Today
