In the early hours of Friday morning, the State Department fumbled its second court-imposed deadline in a week, failing yet again to release 2,900 pages of Hillary Clinton’s official e-mails that a federal judge had ordered be released on New Year’s Eve.
The Department first told reporters to expect the documents between 6 and 10 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, then pushed the expected deadline to 11:45 p.m. before moving the goalposts further to a prospective release early Friday morning.
Despite the delays, key identifying information in the new Clinton e-mails will be missing. As in last week’s release, most e-mails will not contain subject lines, the sender, or the recipient of the e-mail.
As part of a lawsuit filed by a VICE News reporter last year, the State Department is obligated to release a certain number of e-mails from then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server each month. With tonight’s delay, the department continues to violate a federal court order.
On Thursday, the State Department inspector general released a scathing report on the department’s handling of Clinton’s e-mail records and the release of federal records generally, claiming that public-records officers gave “inaccurate and incomplete” information to the public.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that 45 of the Clinton e-mails set to be released on Friday morning are classified. One will likely be upgraded to “Secret,” the second-highest level of classification.
State Department Misses E-mail Deadline