Ready for Transparency
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, former-Secretary Clinton held a press conference to respond to questions surrounding her use of a private email server to conduct official business during her tenure as Secretary of State. Secretary Clinton turned over 55,000 pages of correspondence to the State Department for review, amounting to half of the 60,000 emails she sent and received on the server. The other half, which allegedly included nothing but personal communications, has been deleted.
Friends of the Earth Climate and Energy Director Ben Schreiber issued the following statement in response:
We look forward to the public release of the emails from Secretary Clinton’s time at the State Department. We hope the release of these documents clarifies Secretary Clinton’s role in the Keystone XL National Interest Determination. While we appreciate the release on 55,000 pages of emails, we remain concerned that a substantial number of emails will not be independently reviewed leaving doubt about her personal involvement in the Keystone XL process.
Given the scale of public controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline and the personal relationship she has with her former campaign-official-turned-TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott, we are frankly surprised that our previous Freedom of Information Act requests did not uncover any documents addressed “to” or “from” the Secretary.
The Freedom of Information Act is a bedrock law that allows the public to hold our public officials accountable. Her failure to give these emails in a timely fashion to the State Department undermines the intent of this public disclosure law. There is no justification for deliberately undermining good governance and transparency in the name of convenience.
###
Expert contact: Ben Schreiber, (202) 280-8743, [email protected]
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]