RNC's Priebus: Hillary Wants Email Delay 'Until After Votes Are Counted'

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus scolded the Obama administration Friday after the State Department asked a federal court for a one-month extension in releasing the last of Hillary Clinton's emails, accusing the White House of protecting the Democratic front-runner ahead of voting in critical early states.

"It's clear that the State Department's delay is all about ensuring any further damaging developments in Hillary Clinton's email scandal are revealed only after the votes are counted in the early nominating states," Priebus said.

"The American people should be outraged at the Obama administration's gamesmanship to protect someone who recklessly exposed classified information on more than 1,300 occasions, including highly sensitive top secret intelligence."

Citing a complex review of emails across different federal agencies, the State Department asked the court for the additional time to publish the last of Clinton's messages during her time as secretary of state.

The department wouldn't be able to meet its court-mandated goal of Jan. 29, spokesman Mark Toner said.

About 9,400 of 55,000 pages are left, but he said those remaining "contain a large amount of material that required interagency review."

The department will make public as many as possible next week, he said, but is asking for the final deadline to be pushed back until Feb. 29.

Any extension would push the complete publication of Clinton's emails past several of the earliest contests, including the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 and New Hampshire primaries on Feb. 9.

If they come out instead on Feb. 29, it would be a day before the critical Super Tuesday primaries in March.

"A ruling in favor of this blatant attempt to shield Hillary Clinton from accountability would further erode trust in our political system," Priebus said. "Hillary Clinton has already violated the public trust by putting our national security at risk in order to skirt transparency laws.

"Let's hope her friends at the State Department aren't allowed to continue doing the same."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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