Judge rebuffs State Department move to escape GOP requests for Clinton aides' emails
By JOSH GERSTEIN 07/21/16 05:20 PM EDT
A federal judge has rebuffed the State Department's drive to shut down a Republican National Committee Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over the emails of top aides to Hillary Clinton.
The Justice Department turned heads with a court pleading last month that asked a judge to excuse State from complying with the GOP requests because they could take "generations" to process. One estimate State offered for an early formulation of the requests was 75 years.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said at a 45-minute hearing Thursday morning that she does not plan to grant State's wish, in part because the number of emails at issue in the case appears to have narrowed from about 750,000 pages to roughly 76,000 messages.
"We're not talking about you not getting anything," Jackson told RNC lawyer Edward Kang. "You need to assume ... that's not going to be granted."
In an order issued Thursday afternoon, the judge ordered State to begin producing records to the RNC in the case at a rate of "no less than 500 pages per month." The RNC will also be able to prioritize certain subjects it is interested in, the judge said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/07/hillary-clinton-emails-rnc-foia-225956#ixzz4F8kLx09b
