The Obama State Department buried a key Benghazi-related Hillary email which would have revealed Clinton was using a private email server a year earlier than it was eventually discovered (which was also before she decided to delete the emails she claimed were personal).
In a letter to Judicial Watch dated April 18, 2016 the department released documents that it admitted they had previously withheld. If the State Department disclosed the email when first supposedly found, Clinton’s email server and her hidden emails would have been disclosed nearly two years ago, before Clinton authorized the deletion of tens of thousands of emails.
The September 29, 2012, email to Clinton from then-Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan concerns talking points for Clinton calls with senators about the Benghazi attack and is almost totally redacted. But it does contain Hillary Clinton’s private server email address. Which would have raised questions if it had been released when first discovered.
Per Judicial Watch,
contradicting an earlier statement to the court, an April 18, 2016, State Department letter admits that it found the email at issue in 2014 but was held back in its entirety:
Also, upon further review, the Department has determined that one document previously withheld in full in our letter dated November 12, 2014 may now be released in part.
The referenced November 12, 2014, letter does not reference any withheld emails. A search declaration suggests the hidden email was found in September 2014 as a result of a search in response to Judicial Watch’s lawsuit.
The letter was produced as part of the lawsuit where recently U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth granted Judicial Watch “limited discovery” into Clinton’s and her aides’ email practices. Judge Lamberth ruled that “where there is evidence of government wrong-doing and bad faith, as here, limited discovery is appropriate, even though it is exceedingly rare in FOIA cases.” (U.S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan also granted Judicial Watch discovery into the Clinton email matter. The discovery plan,agreed to by the State Department, is awaiting Judge Sullivan’s approval.)
“Now we know the Obama administration consciously refused to give up key information about Hillary Clinton’s email in 2014. It covered up this email both from the court and Judicial Watch,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judge Lamberth was right when he suggested that Obama’s State Department acted in bad faith. This cover-up provided Hillary Clinton enough time to hide potentially thousands of government records. One aim of our court-order discovery will be to get to the bottom of this cover-up.”
Gee the Obama administration hiding evidence…who’d have thought it?
