AP sues State Department, seeking access to Clinton records

The Associated Press filed a lawsuit against the State Department to force the release of e-mail correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. The legal action comes after repeated requests filed under the US Freedom of Information Act have gone unfulfilled. They include one request AP made five years ago and others pending since the summer of 2013.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, comes a day after Clinton broke her silence about her use of a private e-mail account while secretary of state. The FOIA requests and lawsuit seek materials related to her public and private calendars, correspondence involving longtime aides likely to play key roles in her expected campaign for president, and Clinton-related e-mails about the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices."After careful deliberation and exhausting our other options, the Associated Press is taking the necessary legal steps to gain access to these important documents, which will shed light on actions by the State Department and former Secretary Clinton, a presumptive 2016 presidential candidate, during some of the most significant issues of our time," said Karen Kaiser, AP's general counsel. Said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, "The Freedom of Information Act exists to give citizens a clear view of what government officials are doing on their behalf. When that view is denied, the next resort is the courts."