FBI officials are claiming a lack of public interest justifies their decision to keep Hilary Clinton’s very controversial archived records from being released to the public.
“We have determined you have not sufficiently demonstrated that the public’s interest in disclosure outweighs personal privacy interests of the subject,” says the August 28 letter from David Hardy, the FBI’s record manager.
“I’m just stunned. This is exactly what I would have expected had Mrs. Clinton won the election,” Clevenger told the Washington Times. “It looks like the [Barack] Obama Administration is still running the FBI,” Clevenger added.
“It is incumbent upon the requester to provide documentation regarding the public’s interest in the operations and activities of the government before records can be processed pursuant to the FOIA,” said the time-wasting response, which will likely be appealed by the filer, New York lawyer Ty Clevenger.
Clinton’s records have been the focus of global attention, especially in the run-up to the shocking November presidential election in 2016 as the FBI renewed investigation into her emails, computer records and her husband’s secret runway meeting with the serving Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. In fact, Democrats blame Clinton’s November defeat on the public furor over her records.
President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI, Christopher Wray, took office August 2.
His arrival forced the acting director, Andrew McCabe, back to his role as deputy FBI director. McCabe’s wife is a Democratic activist, and he served under fired FBI director James Comey.