A top Republican senator demanded Wednesday that the State Department probe fears that staffers biased toward former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton are part of the process reviewing her emails, and may be shielding some of her documents to protect her from public embarrassment.
The Washington Times reported earlier this week that some department employees involved in screening Mrs. Clinton’s emails have ties to her personal lawyer, David Kendall, and his law firm, Williams & Connolly. Colleagues in the screening process have raised concerns about the decisions those with ties to Mr. Kendall have made in deciding what and how information should be redacted from public release.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley asked the department to turn over any internal complaints it’s gotten from those concerned employees, and to detail any ties between Mr. Kendall and members of the screening team.
A federal judge is forcing the release of Mrs. Clinton’s emails, which she belatedly returned to the department in December, nearly two years after she left office.
But about 5 percent of the 30,000 messages contain red flags that mean they might have classified information, and they need to be screened by intelligence community officers.
Mr. Grassley said in one case, information was supposed to have been kept private and marked classified, but instead was marked “privileged” — a different exemption that could be used to hide the total amount of secret information Mrs. Clinton was communicating about through her email system.
The State Department has detailed a number of employees to screen Mrs. Clinton’s emails in order to meet monthly deadlines set by a federal judge in Washington.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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