New York Times sues for Defense Secretary Ash Carter's emails

By Austin Wright, Politico, July 18, 2016

Attorneys for The New York Times and the Justice Department are due in federal court Tuesday as part of a lawsuit seeking to force the Pentagon to release full copies of more than a thousand pages of work-related emails Defense Secretary Ash Carter sent and received from his personal account.

The lawsuit, filed in May but not previously reported, is the latest wrinkle in the ongoing saga over the use of personal email by top government officials. It’s an issue that has dogged Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and led earlier this month to a stinging rebuke from the FBI for the former secretary of state -- but no criminal charges.

Carter’s case has received little publicity in comparison to Clinton’s, but it also raises questions about the security procedures in place at the top rungs of the executive branch -- and whether officials are attempting to use their personal email accounts to skirt the Freedom of Information Act, the press and the public's main tool for forcing the release of government records short of the courts.

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