Clinton's Protected Emails Raise Significant Questions

Hilary Clinton showed no regard for State Department policy when she performed government business on her own personal account, and created personal accounts for others closest to her. Now Clinton continues to avoid releasing emails that could disclose how she ignored the security risks in Benghazi. Hilary Clinton continues to try to protect her emails and memos although the State Department did release a cache of the former Secretary of State’s emails after orders from a federal judge in a Freedom of Information Act request.

As Republicans continue to try to piece together Clinton’s response to Benghazi and the avoidable attacks in 2012, nongovernmental groups have resorted to filing lawsuits to gain access to the information.

Thomas Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, and other groups filed lawsuits to force the State Department to provide Clinton’s memos and emails. The parties seek emails on Clinton’s home server because Clinton conducted government business through her personal email address rather than a government email. 

The State Department confirmed Clinton failed to turn over all relevant documents. As the Select Committee on Benghazi stated in a press release,

This confirms doubts about the completeness of Clinton’s self-selected public record and raises serious questions about her decision to erase her personal server—especially before it could be analyzed by an independent, neutral third party arbiter.

The committee also asserts that the failure for Clinton to comply with these requests creates questions beyond Libya. Clinton’s use of her personal email and server makes Clinton deleted emails were unacceptable as a State Department official admitted to a Senate committee. Fitton points to the fact that the information in Clintons email is unknown and was not vetted through State Department protocol. He says,

It dramatically undermines the defense both from the State Department and Mrs. Clinton that this is not really a big deal…[and] It makes our litigation all the more important for either a court to try to retrieve that server [or] State and other authorities doing what they need to do to secure it.

Only time will tell whether Clinton will continue to protect information from the reaches of government protocol, FOIA requests, Congressional subcommittee subpoenas, and now lawsuits.