A federal judge last week lashed out at the State Department for ignoring a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Associated Press four years ago seeking records relating to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's schedules and top aides.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon eventually demanded that the records be produced by next week's hearing, Politico reported.
The Associated Press filed a FOIA request four years ago for records about Clinton, and after the State Department repeatedly ignored some of the AP's requests, the wire service filed suit in March.
Leon said he wants to find out "what has been going on in the State Department for four years dragging their feet, not addressing these issues for four years."
"I want to find out what's been going on over there," Leon said, or more appropriately, "what's not been going on over there."
"The State Department, for reasons known only to itself ... has been, to say the least, recalcitrant in responding," he added.
Lisa Ann Olson and Marcia Berman, Justice Department lawyers representing the State Department, told Leon that the department has been backlogged by a surge in FOIA requests and a wave of new lawsuits that have come since Clinton disclosed in March that she exclusively used a private email server during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat.
Olson and Berman said the agency was prioritizing the public release of Clinton's 55,000 pages of emails she turned over in December, and insisted that the processing of those emails would satisfy the AP's request for records, according to Politico.
"The State Department ... can't say it has done a thorough search until it reviews all 55,000 pages of documents," Olson said.
Apparently tired of excuses, Leon accused Olson of spewing "convoluted gobbledygook"
"What you just said, Ms. Olson, made no sense," the judge replied, according to Politico. "You're failing to distinguish between documents created by the State Department independently of Hillary Clinton's emails - with Hillary Clinton's emails. And you're giving me some kind of convoluted gobbledygook about how the emails contain within them the independently created documents relating to Huma Abedin's appointment as a special government counsel. ... That is nonsensical."
Leon then issued an ultimatum: "Have it by next week. Have it by next week when we have our hearing. Do you hear me?"
