By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--August 31, 2017
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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.”
“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.
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