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FBI rejects FOIA request for Hillary documents, claiming there's not enough 'public interest' to warrant release



Oh sure, you THINK you have a vested interest in seeing FBI documents related to investigations of Hillary Clinton's infamous email server, but you don't. Or, if you do, it's not a sufficient interest. At least, that's the word from the FBI which is currently refusing to comply with a 2016 FOIA request because - get this - no one has demonstrated a public interest in releasing the material. FBI rejects FOIA request for Hillary documents, claiming there's not enough 'public interest' to warrant release
Let that sink in. After everyone in the country spent an entire year and a half squabbling about this matter - while Democrats are still claiming it helped unfairly derail the 2016 election - the FBI is claiming there's insufficient public interest to warrant a document dump. As Fox News reports:
The FBI is declining to turn over files related to its investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails by arguing a lack of public interest in the matter. Ty Clevenger, an attorney in New York City, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in March of 2016 asking for a variety of documents from the FBI and the Justice Department, including correspondence exchanged with Congress about the Clinton email investigation. But in a letter sent this week and obtained by Fox News, the head of the FBI’s Records Management Division told Clevenger that the bureau has “determined you have not sufficiently demonstrated that the public’s interest in disclosure outweighs personal privacy interests of the subject.”

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“Therefore, records regarding your subject are withheld pursuant to FOIA exemptions,” David M. Hardy of the FBI’s Records Management Division told Clevenger.
If you find that baffling, you're not alone. It's even more perplexing when you learn that Clevenger wasn't even seeking every related file. His focus was fairly narrow, as the Daily Caller reports:
Clevenger specifically requested all documents related to then-House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz’s Sept. 6, 2016 referral to the Department of Justice. Chaffetz called for investigators to examine “whether Secretary Clinton or her employees and contractors violated statues that prohibit destruction of records, obstruction of congressional inquiries, and concealment or cover up of evidence material to a congressional investigation.” The FBI asked Clevenger to explain why exactly he believed the public had an interest in viewing the requested documents in an Aug. 11 letter.

I'll be honest, I don't see how you can parse this response in any way that doesn't make it sound like the FBI is providing political cover for those involved. The "interest" here should be self-evident. If you're a Republican, your "interest" lies in the fact that these people are your employees, they're obviously crooked, and you want to see what was going on behind doors. Was Chaffetz's request squashed to protect the Obama admin, the Dems' 2016 candidate, or other FBI allies? If you're a Democrat, your interest in seeing this material lies in the fact that you've spent almost two years proclaiming Mrs. Clinton's innocence. If your position is correct, it would further remove the stench of corruption from your party and your failed presidential candidate. If you're any normal American citizen, your "ineterst" stems from your belief in federal transparency - particularly when we're investigating obstruction of justice. With a story this huge, that should be enough for the FBI. The fact that they've chosen to stonewall reeks of protectionism, and it's not helping diffuse suspicion of Bureau corruption or refute "deep state" accusations. On the other hand, if the FBI wants people to distrust their government, this is the way to do it.


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