The conservative group Citizens United filed a lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration Wednesday, seeking details about its review process of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails and how it determined which ones should be considered personal in nature, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
After the State Department previously determined that 1,246 of Clinton's emails were not related to her official work as the nation's top diplomat and could therefore be withheld from the public, the National Archives also reviewed the emails and agreed that they should be considered personal.
Citizens United, a nonprofit filmmaking group best known for its Supreme Court case on campaign finance, submitted a public records request in June, asking the National Archives to explain its review and determination process, but received no response.
The group filed a lawsuit Wednesday requesting "any and all correspondence, schedules, memoranda, attendee lists, and any other records related to the planning, attendance and methodology" used during the review, according to the Free Beacon.
"This is a narrow [Freedom of Information Act] request, so it shouldn't be taking months and months to get documents," said David Bossie, president of Citizens United. "The American people have a right to inspect these records in a timely fashion, that's why Citizens United filed suit today."
Citizens United also filed a lawsuit Monday against the State Department demanding a full set of Clinton's schedules from her time as secretary of state, reported The International Business Times.
The National Archives was also sued a second time this week for Clinton-related records.
Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Tuesday in the D.C. District Court against the National Archives seeking access to copies of a 20-year-old draft indictment against Clinton for her involvement in the Whitewater scandal.
In the early 1990s, Hillary Clinton and her husband then-President Bill Clinton were accused of being complicit in the defrauding of a small savings and loan association and the small-business investment firm Capital Management Services to the tune of $3 million, according to Vox. Hillary Clinton was then accused of concealing her role by hiding records after she became First Lady, which led to a perjury and obstruction of justice investigation.
The National Archives admitted in March to finding 38 pages of responsive records in a folder titled "Draft Indictment" and approximately 200 pages of records in a folder named "Hillary Rodham Clinton/Webster L. Hubbell Draft Indictment."
However, the National Archives declined to provide Judicial Watch with the records, citing a privacy exemption that "provides protection for law enforcement information, the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," the group said in a press release.
Judicial Watch said the indictments "arose out of the Office of Independent Counsel investigation into Mrs. Clinton's involvement in an allegedly fraudulent transaction, Castle Grande, involving the assets of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan."
"Judicial Watch has confirmed the existence of draft indictments of Hillary Clinton for her lies and obstruction in the Whitewater bank fraud investigation," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement Tuesday. "The Obama administration is refusing to release these records out of concern for Hillary Clinton's privacy. Hillary Clinton's privacy cannot be allowed to trump the public's interest in knowing more about whether she obstructed justice and lied to a federal grand jury."
