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Kerry sued over Clinton emails

by Mark Hensch - 05/28/15 2:33 PM ET

A government watchdog group is suing Secretary of State John Kerry in an attempt to obtain Hillary Clinton’s government emails.

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal accountability group, filed a suit in federal court Thursday petitioning Kerry for public communications Clinton made while serving as secretary of State.

“Secretary Kerry is in cover-up mode for Hillary Clinton,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, according to The Washington Times.

{mosads}Fitton’s organization argued in its legal complaint that Kerry had a responsibility to release Clinton’s messages because he oversees the agency she wrote them for.

Judicial Watch also charged Kerry with declining to report Clinton’s use of a private email server while at State to the Archivist of the U.S.

“Defendant Kerry’s failure to notify the Archivist concerning the unlawful removal of the Clinton emails and failure to initiate action through the attorney general to recover the Clinton emails constitutes a final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court of law,” he wrote in a complaint filed in Washington District Court.

A District of Columbia judge ordered State on Wednesday to release batches of Clinton’s government emails every 30 days.

District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that the agency must produce all non-exempt portions of her communications it possesses on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) website.

His decision tasks State with publishing approximately 55,000 pages provided by Clinton by Jan. 29, 2016.

State must start posting by June 30 and continue every 30 days thereafter.

Concerns over Clinton’s transparency while at State have plagued the Democrat’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Critics argue that Clinton’s personal email server prevents accountability for her official actions taken while at State.

Republicans are particularly concerned with her emails about the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Radical Islamists killed four Americans — including Ambassador Chris Stevens — on Sept. 11, 2012, at the diplomatic consulate.

Clinton has called on State to speed up its review of her communications.

“I want those emails out. … Anything they might do to expedite that process, I wholeheartedly support,” she said during a campaign event at a Cedar Falls, Iowa, bicycle shop May 19.

“I want the American people to learn as much as they can about the work that I did.”

Tags Hillary Clinton John Kerry Tom Fitton