FBI: Clinton FOIA Requests Went Through ‘Shadow Govt’ in State Dept

Group Tried to Convince FBI to Hold All Docs for Release in One Lump

The FBI’s latest releases on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has raised eyebrows on a number of fronts, including noting that the then-Secretary of State Clinton “blatantly” and routinely ignored security protocols, to the embarrassment of top diplomats.

The documents also revealed the existence of a group within the State Department referred to as “the Shadow Government,” which included an unknown collection of high-ranking State Department officials who aimed to totally control Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Congressional inquiries related to Secretary Clinton.

This group also attempted to control the FBI’s release of documents related to the Clinton email probe, pushing for the FBI to withhold all of the documents and release them all in a single lump at the end of the process, instead of releasing them in several batches as they ultimately did.

This adds to concerns the State Department tried to heavily manage the Clinton releases to Clinton’s political advantage, with another document in the release revealing Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy “pressured” the FBI to retroactively declassify certain documents on Clinton’s email server to avoid scrutiny, and may have offered the FBI certain other concessions in return.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.