Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a gathering at the home of Dean Genth and Gary Swenson May 18, 2015, in Mason City, Iowa.(Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP)
The State Department does not intend to make approximately 55,000 pages of former secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails public until Jan. 15, 2016, according to court documents obtained by Vice News.
The documents were filed in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Vice News in January that sought copies of all Clinton's emails, and other documents related to her work as secretary of State.
Clinton's emails during her tenure as secretary of State have become the focus of controversy since it was revealed that she exclusively used private emails to conduct State business, a practice that has been discouraged by the Obama administration.
The Democratic presidential candidate had been scheduled to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi this week, but the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said the panel will not call Clinton to testify until the panel receives all the documents it has requested.
Although the State Department has turned over some Benghazi-related emails from Clinton, Gowdy and other committee Republicans want assurances that they have all of her messages related to the 2012 terror attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya.
In a declaration filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., John F. Hackett, the State Department's acting director of the Office of Information Programs and Services, proposes a Jan. 15, 2016, deadline to release the emails to the public.
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"The Department understands the considerable public's interest in these records and is endeavoring to complete the review and production of them as expeditiously as possible," the document states. "The collection is, however, voluminous and, due to the breadth of topics, the nature of the communications, and the interests of several agencies, presents several challenges."
The declaration outlines a process in which the collection of emails will be broken up into batches, then reviewed and redacted at a pace of roughly 1,000 emails per week. Those emails will then be looked at by a group of appropriate "subject matter experts" and the FOIA office will then apply whatever changes the experts recommend.
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From there, any emails "implicating other agencies' interests" will be sent to those agencies for review.
Finally, the emails will be sent to Office of the Legal Adviser for another review and any conflicting recommendations will "be resolved through discussions."
Despite the fact this process will be done in batches, none of the emails will be released until the process has been completed for all 55,000 emails.
"I want the public to see my email," Clinton said in a March 4 tweet. "I asked State to release them."
I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton)
March 5, 2015
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