FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: Judge: State Department need not seek records of Clinton's private phone

FOIA News (2015-2023)Kevin SchmidtComment

Judge: State Department need not seek records of Clinton's private phone

By Josh Gerstein, Politico, Sept. 30, 2016

A federal judge ruled Friday that the State Department was under no obligation to look outside its own files for records of Hillary Clinton's phone calls on the night of the deadly Benghazi attacks.

U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer said State's searches of its own documents and databases were sufficient to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act brought by Veterans for Strong America, a nonprofit group promoting national defense.

"Plaintiffs offer no basis to require additional efforts to obtain telephonic records, about which they speculate, since State has no FOIA obligation to make that attempt," wrote Collyer, an appointee of President George W. Bush.

Read more here.