State Department covered up Hillary's private email server for years even though 'dozens ...

(UK) Daily Mail ^ | January 7, 2016 | David Martosko

[Zakeet]

Complete Headline: State Department covered up Hillary's private email server for years even though 'dozens of senior officials' knew about it, says scathing inspector general report

• Critical report from State Department's own internal watchdog details abuse of Freedom of Information Act while Clinton ran the agency
  
• 177 of the 240 FOIA requests lodged for information about Hillary while she was secretary of state are still pending three years after she left office
  
• State told a liberal group it had no information about Hillary's emails in 2013 even though many senior officials were emailing her on her private server

The U.S. State Department told a watchdog group in 2013 that it didn't have any information about former secretary Hillary Clinton's emails, even though 'dozens of senior officials' knew she was using a private server for all her electronic communications.

A report released Thursday by the agency's inspector general - a powerful and impartial internal investigator - described a cavalier culture about transparency inside Clinton's agency, saying that 177 requests for documents about Clinton are still 'pending' nearly three years after she left office.

The Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to respond to requests for information within 20 business days.

The botched FOIA request, filed in December 2012 just before Clinton left office, specifically asked whether or not Clinton used an email account other than one hosted at state.gov.

[Verginius Rufus]

If I remember correctly, the office of inspector general was left vacant (with Obama’s obvious connivance) during the whole time Hillary was Secretary of State. Convenient.

[William Tell]

From the linked article: The FOIA law, first enacted in 1966 before the advent of personal computers, 'neither authorizes nor requires agencies to search for Federal records in personal email accounts maintained on private servers or through commercial providers,' the inspector general report explained.

My guess is that the 1966 law contained some language that clearly mandates that federal employees treat all official communications in a manner which makes them available for FOIA searches.

To suggest that a federal employee could hide official messages by simply setting them on fire or selling them to the Soviets is nonsense. Maintaining the only copy of an electronic record off of federal premises would also be obviously an attempt to avoid accountability.

[Mack the knife]

The U.S. State Department told a watchdog group in 2013 that it didn’t have any information about former secretary Hillary Clinton’s emails, even though ‘dozens of senior officials’ knew she was using a private server for all her electronic communications.

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No no no no. Some specific person wrote that answer under oath ... under penalty of perjury, not some amorphous “State Department” spokesperson. Find that person and indict them for Perjury. That is the way to hold a bureaucracy accountable.

[Osage Orange]

I thought it was a B........

[PLMerite]

“No no no no. Some specific person wrote that answer under oath ...”

Plausible deniability. They probably picked someone who had no idea what was going on and made them sign it. Most sworn statements say something to the effect of “to the best of my knowledge and ability.” I had to fill out all kinds of forms and questionnaires when I had no idea what the exact truth was.