AP on FOIA Request: State Department Taking Too Long Producing Clinton Docs

The Associated Press scolded the State Department for taking too long releasing documents related to Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, according to a court filing obtained by Politico. 

Using a Freedom of Information Act request, the AP asked for Clinton's public schedule for the years she was in office, but was told it would take a month to produce 400 pages.

At that rate, the AP calculated, it would take more than four years to produce all her schedules.

"AP (and the citizens of this nation) should not have to wait another four years, long after the 2016 election in which Secretary Clinton is a presidential candidate, to receive a full set of her schedules from her tenure as Secretary of State," the court filing reads. "AP respectfully suggests that a reasonable production schedule would require State to produce all of Secretary Clinton's 'mini schedules' and 'final schedules' no later than the Spring of 2016."

The AP broke down the math and suggested the pace was extremely slow.

"Assuming 20 working days each month, State’s proposal would result in the review of only 20 pages a day," the AP wrote. "At that rate, one person working an eight-hour day would review one page every 24 minutes. Surely State can — and should — do better than that."

The AP has had an ongoing battle with State over production of documents. The newsgathering agency sued in March, saying State had "failed to satisfy repeated document requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act, including one made five years ago."

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