Clinton Loyalists At Foggy Bottom Are Outraged Over Tillerson Push To Fulfill FOIA Requests, Here’s Why…
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Nov 7, 2017
Nearly a month ago, in an October 17th email to all State Department employees, Rex Tillerson announced his decision to ramp up FOIA processing to clear a backlog of requests. As part of the new effort, Tillerson set an ambitious—some say implausible—goal of clearing the massive backlog by the end of 2017.
Of course, while more transparency, rather than less, from government entities is generally considered a positive thing, the army of Clinton loyalists still occupying career positions at the State Department are suddenly concerned about efforts to speed the disclosure of documents from the Clinton era and say it’s nothing more than a political witch hunt. From Politico:
Tillerson says his goal is transparency. But many State workers fear the real reason is political: expediting the public release of thousands of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s official emails.
“It’s a remarkable misuse of resources to advance what is at its core a partisan political aim,” one affected State employee said. “We all know what’s going on. And, of course, we’re all unhappy that we’re being made a part of it.”
Tillerson’s email, among other things, said the department’s FOIA backlog stretches back roughly a decade…ironically, that’s about how long ago Hillary Clinton took over as Secretary of State…though we’re certain that’s just a coincidence.
According to Judicial Watch, the State Department has yet to process around 40,000 pages of at least 72,000 records which contain Clinton emails. However, State Department officials have indicated they believe that many of those still-unreleased documents are duplicates of information already shared with the public.
The issue spotlights the deepening distrust towards Tillerson at Foggy Bottom, where his attempts to restructure the department, cut its budget and centralize policy-making have already hurt morale. But it is drawing applause from conservative groups, who have been pressuring Tillerson to act on a backlog of 13,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — many of them relating to emails and other records from Clinton’s tenure.
The Rest…HERE
