State Dept. Discovers New Benghazi Emails from Clinton's Private Account
— -- The State Department said today it has found previously undisclosed emails related to the Benghazi terror attack on former Secretary Clinton's private email account.
In February, the Department turned over 296 emails relating to Benghazi to the House Select Committee investigation the attack, claiming at the time that they were the only emails relevant to the committee's request.
Today's new discovery of a handful of new emails, first reported by the Daily Beast, contradicts that claim.
A senior State Department official tells ABC News it missed these emails the first time around because of the cumbersome nature of discovery process. Clinton turned over 55,000 printed pages of documents that had to be search by hand, which prevented researchers from conducting electronic keyword searches, according to this official. The new emails were discovered only after the documents had been scanned and searched on a computer.
Jamal Ware, a spokesman for the Benghazi committee, welcomed the new documents but said they have yet to receive them. The committee has been highly critical in the past of the State Department's production process.
“The State Department, which has failed to comply with multiple Benghazi Committee requests and failed to act in good faith, is now indicating it intends to foster a more cooperative relationship with the committee," Ware said in an emailed statement to ABC News. "It’s curious the Department is suddenly able to be more productive after recent staff changes involving those responsible for document production."
The State Department claims the committee has broadened its requests over time and placed and enormous burden on their public records workers.
The Department also points out that these newly discovered Benghazi-related emails represent only a handful of 925 new emails it is turning over today. A vast major of those are in response to a committee request in March that demanded all emails related to Libya in general, not just Benghazi.
This State Department official also claimed that these new emails will in no way change the narrative of the attack, as established by the agency.
