6/25/2023 0 Comments Trey gowdy redacted email“The enclosed documents do not reflect the input of all of the various other executive agencies that may have equities in certain documents,” the memo said.Īs a practical matter, executive branch agencies have little control over information once it is turned over to congressional committees. The State memo described the review of the Blumenthal-related emails for FOIA purposes as incomplete. State officials have said there is no plan to prioritize an additional 950 Libya-related records the panel received last month in preparation for Thursday’s hearing, including the Blumenthal emails State provided in redacted form Saturday.Ī memorandum of understanding negotiated between State and the Benghazi committee gives State five days to review documents that the panel wishes to release publicly but provides no assurance that the committee will abide by the proposed State redactions. Those monthly releases are generally working through Clinton’s four-year tenure at State in chronological order, although a batch of about 850 pages of Benghazi related records were released publicly in May. Monthly court-ordered email releases are expected to continue through January. Clinton has said she wants the messages released as soon as possible. So far, State has released only about 37% of the roughly 54,000 pages of Clinton emails she turned over to her former agency last December. Relying on the FOIA process, as State suggests, could mean a longer wait for many of the documents. However, in a letter Sunday Gowdy had asserted that his panel would exercise independent judgment about what information should be released and had access to experts who are “uniquely well suited to gauge intelligence information and how it should be handled.”ĭemocrats have also requested that State review for sensitivity some documents they may wish to make public at the Thursday hearing, a source familiar with the process said. Gowdy aides substituted a new version of the document on the web, excising Koussa’s name, and blamed State for the foul-up. State Department spokesman Mark Toner acknowledged a “human error” in failing to flag that name for deletion, although he said the CIA had not requested withholding the name. Such a controversy over the thoroughness of State’s review and the wisdom of Gowdy’s plan to release the emails erupted Monday after a single email he made public online Sunday contained the name of a former Libyan intelligence official who reportedly cooperated with the CIA, Moussa Koussa. The arrangement appears to give the State Department and the panel the opportunity to blame each other if sensitive information is released intentionally or inadvertently at Thursday’s hearing or in the lead-up to it. The Committee is handling documents consistent with this agreement and has provided the Department an opportunity to recommend certain sensitive information be redacted,” he added. “That said, the State Department and the Committee have had an understanding from the beginning that any documents produced could be released publicly by the Committee and that it is the prerogative of the Committee to make this determination. It is customary and well understood that these become the property of the Committee and that-consistent with the separation of powers-obviously the House may determine how to use them,” Ware said Tuesday when asked to comment on State’s memo. “Congress and the House have an independent right to subpoena or make investigative use of documents. House Benghazi Committee spokesman Jamal Ware said that the panel has always maintained its right to make the final decision on the release of information gathered during its probe of the 2012 attack, which killed four Americans including U.S. State’s memo said the review was driven by Gowdy’s indication that he planned to release a set of emails Clinton exchanged with outside adviser Sid Blumenthal without redactions if State failed to propose deletions from the records.Ī State spokesman declined to comment on the memo Tuesday.
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