State Department to release new batch of Clinton emails

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton checks her PDA upon her departure in a military C-17 plane from Malta bound for Tripoli, Libya October 18, 2011. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said it would release 3,000 pages of emails from the account of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton at 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday (0100 GMT on Wednesday). Department spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing the latest batch of emails would cover March through December 2009. "We recognize it's an inconvenient time," Kirby said of the nighttime release. He said State officials would be working until the last minute to get the second tranche of emails out to meet a court-ordered deadline. "There's been nothing but nearly nonstop work on this since the last tranche was released," he said. Clinton, the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, has been criticized for her use of a private email address, connected to a computer server in her home, for her work correspondence. A federal judge ordered the department to adhere to a timetable for the rolling release of 55,000 pages of emails sent and received by Clinton while she was the top U.S. diplomat from 2009 to 2013. The first batch of emails was released in May. The State Department has said it expected to complete the release of all the messages by January 2016. The emails are being redacted using Freedom of Information Act standards, blocking any information related to national security, personal privacy, privilege and trade secrets. Republicans want the emails to be made public soon to cast more light on Clinton's term as secretary of state. (Editing by Sandra Maler; Editing by Sandra Maler)