The State Department released the first batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails on Friday from the private email address she used when she was secretary of state.  The 296 emails all pertained to the 2012 terrorist attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  The emails included some of Clinton’s correspondence with Sidney Blumenthal, a controversial former White House aide, which was first leaked on Thursday, as well as other documents from the 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner’s tenure at the State Department.  These documents represent the first release of tens of thousands of pages of email, which Clinton stored on a private server before handing them over to the federal government last year.  The initial release did not satisfy Trey Gowdy, the chair of the House committee investigating the September 2012 terrorist attack in which ambassador Chris Stevens was killed – a hugely controversial incident for Republicans.  In a statement, the South Carolina Republican trashed this partial disclosure as a handful of “self-selected emails” that was “reviewed and released” by lawyers who owe a “fiduciary responsibility to Secretary Clinton”.  Gowdy continued to push for Clinton to hand over all of her emails, saying: “The best way to answer all questions related to the attacks in Benghazi continues to be having access to the full public record, not a ‘record’ controlled, possessed and screened exclusively by Secretary Clinton’s personal lawyers.”  Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the Benghazi committee, took a very different tone.  “I am pleased that the State Department released the complete set of Secretary Clinton’s emails about Benghazi – as Democrats requested months ago,” said the Maryland Democrat. “Instead of the selective leaking that has happened so far, the American people can now read all of these emails and see for themselves that they contain no evidence to back up claims that Secretary Clinton ordered a stand-down, approved an illicit weapons program, or any other wild allegation Republicans have made for years.”  In a tweet, the State Department asserted that the emails added little new information about the attacks.  The emails we release today do not change the essential facts or our understanding of the events before, during, or after the attacks.  The Associated Press reported that Clinton received information on her private email server that had now been classified about the deadly attack on Benghazi.  The email in question, forwarded to Clinton by her deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, relates to reports of arrests in Libya of possible suspects in the attack in which four Americans were killed.  The information was not classified at the time the email was sent but was upgraded from “unclassified” to “secret” on Friday at the request of the FBI, according to State Department officials. They said 23 words of the 18 November 2012 message were redacted from the day’s release of 296 emails, totaling 896 pages, to protect information that could damage foreign relations.  Because the information was not classified when the email was sent, no laws were violated, but Friday’s redaction shows that Clinton received sensitive information on her unsecured personal server.  No other redactions were made to the collection of Benghazi-related emails for classification reasons, the officials said.  Clinton said on Tuesday she supported the swift release of her emails amid reports that the State Department would not publicly release them all until January 2016. The department said it planned to release portions of 55,000 emails.  “I want those emails out. Nobody has a bigger interest in getting them released than I do,” Clinton told reporters during a campaign stop in Iowa. “I respect the State Department. They have their process, as they do for everybody, not just for me, but anything that they might do to expedite that process, I heartily support. I want the American people to learn as much as we can about the work that I did.”  Clinton first addressed the issue in March, shortly after transparency concerns were raised following reports that she used only a personal email account to conduct government business. At the time, Clinton denied any wrongdoing and said the decision was a matter of “convenience”.  The Associated Press contributed to this report
State Department’s official release of 296 emails included one containing information that has since been classified from which 23 words were redacted