Hillary Clinton: State Department Releases Hundreds Of Benghazi Emails
The United States State Department released its first round of emails from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State on Friday. This will offer a new look at how Clinton handled the 2012 terror attack of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The first round totals roughly 300 emails and about 850 pages are part of a much larger 30,000 emails, totaling over 55,000 pages that Hillary Clinton turned over to the State from her private server, which she used practically exclusively to conduct both public and private affairs during her tenure at the State Department. The emails reveal a range of correspondence from Clinton, from policy briefs to scheduling requests with staff.
The emails do not change the official assessment of the incident in which a U.S. ambassador was killed.
“The emails we release today do not change the essential facts or our understanding of the events before, during, or after the attacks, which have been known since the independent Accountability Review Board report on the Benghazi attacks was released almost two and a half years ago,” said spokeswoman Marie Harf according to TIME.
The emails also offer occasional glimpses into the private life of Hillary Clinton, such as her public-radio listening habits.
In response to the multitude of requests from the media and from Clinton herself, the State Department has drawn up plans to release all of the emails over time.
“I’m glad the emails are starting to come out,” Hillary Clinton told reporters today according to the Boston Herald. “It’s something I’ve asked to be done for a long time. Those are beginning. I want people to be able to see everything.”
Currently, the emails seem to confirm Clinton’s previous declarations that she was not given any classified information to her private email address, instead of the dagger the republicans were desperately hoping for. The emails simply show a Secretary of State deeply engaged in Libyan issues. But some of the emails contain what the government has called “sensitive” information, including details of the location of State Department officials in Libya while security there was diminishing during the 2011 revolution.
Of course, these emails do not tell anywhere near the entire story. They exclude all briefs, memos, and phone calls. Also, it doesn’t include the many emails that were allegedly deleted by Clinton. But according to the emails given, Clinton appears to only be involved in times of crisis and even then, deferred to those below her.
This comes after news that the Clinton family continues to accept cash from firms that lobbied Hillary Clinton’s state department, according to Inquisitr.
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