Hillary Clinton Aides Blocked the Release of Public Records

During her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton’s staff “scrutinized politically sensitive documents requested [by members of the public] under public-records [disclosure] law” and chose not to release them when they felt like it, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing “people with direct knowledge of the activities.”

During her tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton’s staff “scrutinized politically sensitive documents requested [by members of the public] under public-records [disclosure] law” and chose not to release them when they felt like it, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing “people with direct knowledge of the activities.”

The Wall Street Journal continues:

In one instance, her chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, told State Department records specialists she wanted to see all documents requested on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and later demanded that some be held back.

In another case, Ms. Mills’s staff negotiated with the records specialists over the release of documents about former President Bill Clinton’s speaking engagements—also holding some back.

The records requests came under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, the public’s main tool to get information from the government. Decisions on what to release belong with each agency’s FOIA staff, say experts on the law, to guard against the withholding of documents for political or other inappropriate reasons. …

A person knowledgeable about the department’s records process said that there is no pressure on bureaus or embassies to respond to document searches in a timely fashion; that FOIA specialists hold little stature; and that there are no consequences for people who don’t produce documents requested.