The Honorable Patrick F. Kennedy
Under Secretary for Management
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, N. W.
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Ambassador Kennedy:
Over the past year, the State Department has processed hundreds of requests and released thousands of pages of documents from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department. The Department has dedicated tremendous resources and manpower to efficiently and comprehensively releasing an unprecedented number of records. The Department’s steadfast commitment to transparency and the public’s right to know is commendable.
Unfortunately, these FOIA requests and subsequent lawsuits are driven, in most cases, by highly partisan groups with a right-wing political agenda. Highly partisan organizations like Judicial Watch and Citizens United are using FOIA requests and lawsuits with one goal: to politically damage Hillary Clinton. Both organizations have long histories of targeting Bill and Hillary Clinton. Since 1994, Judicial Watch has pursued dozens of lawsuits against the Clintons and, according to Politico, drove itself “to fringe status with its relentless investigations of Bill Clinton’s presidency.” Citizens United has both a decades-long record of attacking Hillary Clinton and close ties to Donald Trump. Just last month, David Bossie, the president and chairman of Citizens United, took a leave of absence from the organization to serve as Trump’s deputy campaign manager. The right-wing has essentially drawn the State Department into its highly-partisan witch hunt against Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Currently, the State Department’s process for releasing documents often gives these partisan groups exclusive access to what are public records. When the Department releases some records, like Hillary Clinton’s emails, they are simultaneously posted publicly online—but this is not standard procedure. Sometimes, the Department does not publicly posts released documents, giving partisan political groups like Judicial Watch and Citizens United virtual control of public records. This process allows these partisan organizations to post individual documents out of context, cherry pick information for public release and leak “exclusive stories” to reporters. Meanwhile, the American people—whose tax dollars funded the review and release of these documents—are essentially denied access to public records.
For example, last month the State Department was scheduled to process and produce 2000 pages to Citizens United by August 22, 2016, in litigation seeking the emails of Huma Abedin and other individuals. On August 30, Politico, Fox News and The New York Post ran stories highlighting emails obtained by Citizens United. In an August 30 interview with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt, Bossie acknowledged that once Citizens United obtained the records, the group was able to “systematically go through” the emails in search of messages that would appear damaging. And in that same interview Earhardt stated that Citizens United “released certain emails only to Fox News.” It wasn’t until Friday, September 9 that the State Department began posting some of the emails related to these stories to its FOIA site. By not immediately posting the documents, the Department gave Citizens United sole control of these public records for over a week.
This process violates the spirit of our country’s public disclosure laws. American taxpayers are funding the equipment and personnel necessary to fulfill this unprecedented number of documents requests. They deserve to have access to these public records as they are released. Fortunately, the State Department can easily remedy this situation. Instead of occasionally posting some records online, the State Department should always simultaneously post every document it releases to the Department’s FOIA website. By making the public posting of all document releases standard procedure, the State Department will ensure that its admirable efforts to publicly disclose documents are not merely used for the basest partisan ends but instead serve the noble principle of transparency in government.
Sincerely,
David Brock
Founder, Correct The Record
http://correctrecord.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Brock-Letter-to-State-Department-9.12.16-1.pdf