Don’t waste your time reading the first batch of Clinton emails

If you happen to be working for a campaign for one of the dozen or so GOP candidates expected to run for president in 2016, you’re not going to like the first tranche of emails that were declassified by the State Department on May 22. And, if you’re a Republican member serving on the House Benghazi Select Committee who expected some kind of smoking gun email that could tie former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to a Benghazi cover-up or conspiracy, you might as well put down your iPad or computer right now and save yourself some time. Judging from the first 296 Clintonmail.com messages that were released to the public last week, there doesn’t appear to be a single email or communication that is newsworthy or at all interesting.

{mosads}Republican lawmakers and staff who are currently investigating the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya (the first time since the 1970s that a U.S. ambassador was killed overseas in an act of deliberate violence) have been pushing for full and unfettered access to all of Clinton’s State Department correspondence. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), an able-bodied former federal prosecutor who has made it his mission to stay away from wading into the political waters surrounding Clinton’s candidacy during his investigation, has repeatedly pushed State Department officials to provide his committee with every single email or letter related in any way to Benghazi specifically, or Libya in general. Subpoenas have been issued, complaints have been made and public hearings have been held for precisely this purpose: for Gowdy, no questioning of Clinton can happen unless and until all of the relevant information is acquired.

Unfortunately for Gowdy and his committee, they have been unable to get what they want. For better or worse, Clinton and her attorneys have effectively argued that all of her work-related emails have been turned over to the State Department, and that she followed proper procedure by turning over what the State Department has requested. So Mr. Gowdy, the argument goes, if you want a place to direct your complaints, address them to the State Department — not Clinton.

In the meantime, the average American couldn’t care less about the entire affair. After countless congressional investigations, numerous news conferences, and two-and-a-half years of talking up the issue, Benghazi is more likely to be viewed as a tragic act of terrorism than a conspiracy purposely covered up by a paranoid-prone and insular Clinton. That belief hasn’t changed, even after last Friday’s news dump of the 296 emails totaling 896 pages.

At most, the first release of Clinton emails will be construed as a nuisance by Clinton’s campaign — an event that was unavoidable, but one that can be weathered after the story exhausts itself over a couple of days (or at least until the next batch of boring emails comes out).

This isn’t a partisan statement. Taken collectively, there isn’t much in the 896 pages of correspondence between Clinton and her advisers (most notably foreign policy aide Jacob Sullivan, Clinton loyalist Sidney Blumenthal and close confident Huma Abedin). In fact, rolling through the hundreds of pages of emails, you get the sense that Clinton and her team were public relations professionals: Most of the messages sent back and forth were a mixture of news articles forwarded around the building that might peak the interest of senior State Department staff. Clinton’s team at Foggy Bottom monitored press stories on Libya like hawks, sending articles from the country’s major newspapers and websites to senior staff across the State Department. Clinton herself rarely goes beyond the usual “Pls print” message to a staff aide. The most interesting Benghazi-related email is the entire tranche of documents has already been reported, and that’s a four-sentence email from Sullivan to Clinton that essentially boils down to a history lesson (“You [Clinton] never said spontaneous or characterized the motives [of the Benghazi attackers]”). Wait, someone who works for Clinton is trying to assure her that she didn’t say something wrong? Shocking!

If you want a summary of the opening round of Clinton emails, it’s this: Sidney Blumenthal thinks he’s an intelligence officer and Philippe Reines occasionally loses his cool with reporters (in this case, the late Michael Hastings). If you want to read something interesting about Benghazi that you already didn’t know, you’re going to have to wait for the next several hundred emails to come out. Or maybe the next one, or the next one.

After Round One, Hillary Clinton comes out of the ring unscathed.

DePetris is a Middle East analyst for Wikistrat, Inc, a geopolitical risk consultancy, and an independent foreign policy consultant.