Read the full story: Washington Examiner
Internal State Department documents from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state have slowly made their way to the public through the Freedom of Information Act as Congress fights to reform what many see as a broken transparency law. A high-profile lawsuit between Vice News and the State Department over the agency’s failure to respond adequately to a FOIA request prompted the court ruling last week that will force the agency to release batches of Clinton’s private emails every 30 days….
Daniel Epstein, executive director of nonpartisan watchdog Cause of Action, said the Benghazi Committee has likely obtained scores of documents it has decided not to release to the public. “They don’t want the media to adjudicate these issues,” Epstein said. “You may leak certain documents at opportune times because getting the media to talk about an issue is helpful to put pressure on a target,” Epstein said. “But you don’t want your target to know all the information you may be aware of.” Epstein said FOIA requesters often have “different incentives” than congressional investigators. He said the barrage of FOIA lawsuits against the State Department often fail to produce documents “when you have an agency whose incentive is to obfuscate the truth.”