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AP Photo Judge balks at five-year timeline for release of Clinton emails

A federal judge signaled Monday that he's not inclined to agree to a timetable for the release of FBI-recovered Hillary Clinton emails that could have the records dribbling out over the next five years.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg made the comment during a hearing on a Freedom of Information Act case brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch where the State Department is currently processing 500 pages per month.

With as many as 31,000 emails contained on disks the FBI turned over but State has not yet processed for release, the current pace in the case Boasberg addressed Monday could stretch out for several years.

"I'm not satisfied with saying, 'Fine, go ahead and take five years to do this,'" Boasberg said during a half-hour hearing in federal court in Washington.

At the moment, State is processing about 2,350 pages a month from the first of a series of disks the FBI gave to State after the law enforcement agency recovered additional Clinton emails from her server and other equipment, as well as individuals with whom she corresponded.

However, that tally includes both the Judicial Watch case and two others filed by Vice News reporter Jason Leopold. Once that initial disk is processed, there's no guarantee that State would keep processing the Clinton emails at the same rate.

Justice Department attorney Lisa Ann Olson indicated that State seemed to be about halfway through processing and releasing the first disk of extra Clinton emails and expects to finish that process early next year. However, it's hard to assess that prediction because State still can't say how many pages of messages there are on that first disk—more than three months after the agency got it from the FBI.

"We don't know the exact number of pages," Olson told the judge.

Boasberg also expressed interest in State's plans for handling more emails that the FBI recently discovered on a laptop belonging to the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. "I think that's fair game as well," the judge said.

FBI Director James Comey told Congress in a letter Sunday that the newly-found emails haven't changed the FBI's view that Clinton shouldn't be prosecuted. However, the FBI chief didn't say the agency was done analyzing the material and didn't address any conclusions about others whose conduct was examined in the initial probe.

Olson said State has received no communications about the Abedin emails. "We don't know anything about those documents yet," she said.

"I only know what I read in the newspaper," replied Boasberg, an appointee of President Barack Obama.

Judicial Watch attorney Chris Fedeli asked that the Justice Department request the records from the FBI, but Boasberg said he lacked the power to order State to do that.

"That's up to them," the judge said.

Olson suggested any new emails the FBI finds would be covered by a request State sent the law enforcement agency earlier this year asking for potential federal records that are discovered.

After the hearing, State Department spokesman Mark Toner emphasized that no final timetable for the processing of remaining Clinton emails is in place.

"No such timeline has been set, but we are working diligently to process Secretary Clinton’s emails through FOIA," Toner said in a statement.

Toner said State expects that most of the 31,200 work-related emails it found on three still-to-be-processed FBI disks "consist of materials from custodians other than former Secretary Clinton."

"It would be premature and speculative for the Department, or anyone else, to extrapolate conclusions about the contents of these messages until they are reviewed individually," Toner added.

Boasberg set a hearing for Nov. 29 to discuss whether State has received any of the newly-found Abedin emails by that point or expects to get them. The timeline for productions of the other disks turned over by the FBI will be discussed at a hearing in March, the judge said.

Fedeli suggested that State should be able to crank through something on the order of 50,000 pages of Clinton emails in about a year, because the agency did so with the messages Clinton turned over directly to State at the end of 2014. The Judicial Watch lawyer also noted that the FBI went through what was reported to be a large volume of Abedin's emails in about a week.

However, Boasberg noted that State is now facing dozens of FOIA lawsuits seeking various kinds of records relating to Clinton and her top aides. He said that means their resources are now spread across a variety of matters.

"I'm not sure they can necessarily work at the same rate," the judge said.

After the hearing, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said State is "slow-walking" its response in order to benefit Clinton.

Asked if his group was prepared to pursue the case no matter who wins on Tuesday, Fitton quipped: "We're prepared to see it through to the Chelsea Clinton administration."