Archives officials worried about Clinton’s records

National Archives officials were worried that some of Hillary Clinton’s records at the State Department would go to the Clinton library when she left government, according to emails obtained by a government transparency organization.

Archives officials were also aware that Clinton was using a private e-mail account at State, according to Cause of Action.

{mosads}“These records reveal that before Hillary Clinton exited the State Department, there were serious concerns about her violating federal records laws,” said Dan Epstein, the group’s executive director.

“Yet, despite knowledge by the State Department and the Archives, nothing was done about it.”

Cause of Action obtained the archived communications via public records requests to both the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the State Department.

NARA Chief Records Officer Paul Wester wrote in a December 11, 2012 email that several of the agency’s top officials were anxious about documenting Clinton’s tenure at State following her departure there.

“Tom heard (or thought he heard) from the Clinton Library Director that there are or may be plans afoot for taking her records from State to Little Rock,” Wester wrote, citing queries raised by NARA chief operating officer Tom Mills over the records reaching former President Bill Clinton’s presidential library.

“Tom then got to asking questions about what we are doing to make sure everyone leaving the administration does not leave with federal records,” he added.

Mills and NARA’s Director of the Federal Records Center Jay Trainer were reportedly wary of repeating their experiences with former secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Kissinger’s departure from State sparked a prolonged legal battle for his agency records, according to Cause of Action.

“He and Jay continued to invoke the specter of the Henry Kissinger experience vis-à-vis Hillary Clinton,” Wester noted in his message.

Wester additionally trumpeted his agency’s record-keeping skills in a later email sent on Feb. 27, 2015 despite these concerns over cataloging Clinton’s State communications.

“Overall, the State Department records management program and staff are considered very strong,” he wrote in a prepared response to Kimberly Betz, a staffer on the House Select Committee on Benghazi inquiring about State’s record management processes.

“NARA has awarded the State Department two Archivist Achievement Awards in Records Management in the past decade,” Wester said.

“They also have strong Records Management Self-Assessment scores,” he added.

Questions over Clinton’s e-mail account have swirled around her 2016 Democratic presidential campaign since she launched it on April 12.

Critics argue that she may have controlled what records exist of her State communications by sending them on a private email server she owns.

House Republicans are particularly interested in determining what State records exist on Clinton’s server given their ongoing inquiry into the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.