Justice Department: “State Department employees may delete messages they deem in their own discretion to be personal.” “Second, because personal records are not subject to FOIA, and State Department employees may delete messages they deem in their own discretion to be personal, Plaintiff ’s preservation argument reduces to an unsupported allegation that former Secretary Clinton might have mistakenly or intentionally deleted responsive agency records rather than personal records. But Plaintiff offers no support for such a theory, and government agencies are not required to take steps to recover deleted material based on unfounded speculation that responsive information had been deleted.” [Justice Department Filing, Case 1:12-cv-02034-RBW, 9/9/15]
Department of Justice lawyers ruled Hillary Clinton “had authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision.” “In the most complete legal defense of Mrs. Clinton, Justice Department lawyers insisted they not only have no obligation, but no power, to go back and demand the former top diplomat turn over any documents she hasn’t already given — and neither, they said, can the court order that. The defense came as part of a legal filing telling a judge why the administration shouldn’t be required to order Mrs. Clinton and her top aides to preserve all of their emails. ‘There is no question that Secretary Clinton had authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision — she appropriately could have done so even if she were working on a government server,’ the administration lawyers argued. ‘Under policies issued by both the National Archives and Records Administration (‘NARA’) and the State Department, individual officers and employees are permitted and expected to exercise judgment to determine what constitutes a federal record.’” [Washington Times, 9/10/15]
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