State Department Releases Next Batch of Emails

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, gestures as she addresses the summer meeting of the Democratic National Committee, Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Tonight, the State Department released another batch of emails from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. The department reports that this batch contains roughly 7,000 pages of emails and that what they have released so far constitutes about 25% of emails that Clinton turned over. To date, 188 of the emails have been marked as classified, but a State Department spokesman said that the emails were not marked as classified at the time they were sent or received.

Clinton has said on several occasions that she wants the emails available to the public in the interest of transparency. News organizations release quotes from a few of her emails, but many average Americans have asked how they can access the emails. Since the release of the emails is part of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), all the emails are being posted to the State Department’s FOIA website. To access the emails that have been released so far, follow the steps below:

1. Go to http://foia.state.gov/Search
2. Type “Hillary Clinton” in the Search Terms field
3. You will get results with a mix of emails and other documents
4. Click on the arrow next to the “Posted Date” column header and select “Sort Descending” so that the recently released documents show first
5. Click the title of the document in the “Subject” field to open a PDF copy

As of this posting, the search yields 4,172 emails and documents, and this number is going to continue to grow. The State Department will release batches of Clinton’s emails at the end of each month through the end of 2015.

News Source: Politico

Clinton Unveils Agricultural Agenda in Iowa

Today, Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to Ankeny, Iowa to discuss her plan to support rural, agricultural America. After being introduced by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at the Des Moines Area Community College, Clinton unveiled her plan that includes investments in rural areas including focusing on rural transportation, streamlining the process for community banks, investment in water and broadband infrastructure, and improving Agriculture Department grant programs. Other facets of the plan includes raising the production of agricultural products and making the product more profitable for farmers, promoting a use of clean energy and renewable energy sources, and expanding opportunities for those in rural communities by expanding Head Start, affordable education, and affordable healthcare.

A full video from today’s speech is available on C-SPAN.

Following the event, Clinton answered questions from reporters where she discussed her use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. She expressed regret and said that she believes in transparency. She said, “I know people have raised questions about my email use as secretary of state, and I understand why. I get it. So here’s what I want the American people to know: My use of personal email was allowed by the State Department. It clearly wasn’t the best choice. I should’ve used two emails: one personal, one for work. I take responsibility for that decision, and I want to be as transparent as possible, which is why I turned over 55,000 pages, why I’ve turned over my server, why I’ve agreed to — in fact, been asking to — and have finally gotten a date to testify before a congressional committee in October. I’m confident that this process will prove that I never sent, nor received, any email that was marked classified.

A video from Clinton’s press conference is available on C-SPAN and is available below.

Tomorrow, Clinton will be in the Cleveland, Ohio area. In the meantime, follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

UPDATE (9/22): Added video from press conference.

News Source: Des Moines Register, Time, The New York Times (2)

How to Access Clinton’s FOIA Emails

The release of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails during her tenure as Secretary of State has certainly made headlines, and Clinton has said on several occasions that she wants the emails available to the public in the interest of transparency. News organizations release quotes from a few of her emails, but many average Americans have asked how they can read the emails from home. Since the release of the emails is part of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), all the emails are being posted to the State Department’s FOIA website. To access the emails that have been released so far, follow the steps below:

1. Go to http://foia.state.gov/Search
2. Type “Hillary Clinton” in the Search Terms field
3. You will get results with a mix of emails and other documents
4. Click on the arrow next to the “Posted Date” column header and select “Sort Descending” so that the recently released documents show first
5. Click the title of the document in the “Subject” field to open a PDF copy

As of this posting, the search yields 3,445 emails and documents, and this number is going to continue to grow. The State Department will release batches of Clinton’s emails at the end of each month through the end of 2015. A total of 30,490 were turned over to the State Department, so this is going to be a long process.

News Source: State Department, The Washington Post