State Dept. could be releasing Hillary Clinton’s emails before the election: Sec. Pompeo

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a Friday interview with Fox News host Dana Perino that the State Department has former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails and plans to release them to the public.

“We got the emails, we’re going to get all this information out so that the American people can see it,” he told Perino on her Fox News program The Daily Briefing.

Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State was a constant source of contention for her 2016 candidacy for president, haunting her campaign up through Election Day. Experts and critics have said that using a private email server to discuss official State Department business was a major national security threat.

Sec. Clinton, claiming that many of the emails were personal, instructed her team in 2014 to delete over 30,000 emails from the private server. Republicans have been eager to get their hands on these emails for many years now, claiming that there likely is proof of criminality on the part of Clinton while she served as secretary of state.

James Comey, who was the director of the FBI in 2016, reopened the FBI’s investigation into her emails after an investigation by the Inspector General into her emails pertaining to illegal activity by her campaign vice chair’s husband, disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner. Importantly, he announced this on October 28—just days before the 2016 election.

When asked by Perino if these will be released before the November 3 election, he said, “We’re doing it as fast as we can. I certainly think that there’ll be more to see before the election.”

With 25 days until the 2020 presidential election, this carries the potential to shake things up. All of this will depend on if the emails can be published before the election and on whether the emails incriminate anybody or tarnish someone’s image.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.