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The State Department has been swamped with lawsuits seeking emails sent or received by Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state. | Getty Judge gives State Department tongue-lashing over Clinton classification training records

A federal judge lashed out at the State Department on Monday over what he charged was foot-dragging over Freedom of Information Act requests relating to Hillary Clinton's service as secretary of state.

“You have a client that, to say the least, is not impressing the judges on this court, myself included. … It is in your client’s interest to start being more obviously cooperative,” U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon warned Justice Department lawyers representing State during a hearing Monday. “The State Department is at risk of being perceived as obstreperous. [They] need to get with the program.”

The 10-minute hearing took place on a suit for records on how — and whether — Clinton and her aides were trained to handle classified information. State had proposed a deadline of Oct. 17 to produce about 450 unclassified documents relating to the training issue sought by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

However, Leon ordered the diplomatic agency to complete processing and disclosure of those records by Oct. 10. He also said State must produce the records in three installments “of comparable size” and can’t leave the bulk of the records to the last batch.

“We will do our best,” Justice Department attorney Jason Lee told Leon.

“Do better than your best. … You do it,” Leon shot back.

The issue of classified-information training for Clinton and her aides has drawn attention in recent weeks, after FBI Director James Comey observed that three emails received by Clinton had paragraphs marked with a (C) for information classified as “confidential,” although the entire messages were not properly marked as classified and appeared to have involved a cut-and-paste job. Comey also said that any senior official should have realized the topics being discussed in other emails were not suitable for an unclassified system.

According to an FBI report, Clinton said she could not recall receiving any training or briefing on how to handle classified information.

However, when the extent of her use of a private email account as secretary was revealed last year, Clinton said: “I’m certainly well-aware of the classification requirements.”

An initial search for records responsive to the Daily Caller request turned up no records at all about training for Clinton or deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, while some were located for chief of staff Cheryl Mills and Director of Policy Planning Jake Sullivan.

However, a lawyer representing the Daily Caller, Brad Moss, asked State to do a more thorough search. That turned up over 1,000 records last week, the bulk of them classified files about the process State uses to approve access to a highly classified program and to withdraw it when it is no longer necessary or a person leaves government.

In an interview broadcast Monday on NPR, former President Bill Clinton said he trusted the State Department to make sure there was no conflict of interest with the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

Lee said many of those records are classified “Top Secret or higher than Top Secret.” That complicates the processing because people have to be granted the proper clearances, he said.

He offered no estimate when those records will be processed, although most of them are expected to be withheld as classified.

Leon also made clear that he believes the case should be prioritized because of the looming presidential election.

“It’s time sensitive because it involves a national election for president,” the judge said.

Moss had objected to State’s plan to finish production of the roughly 450 documents by Oct. 17, because that is only two days before the final presidential debate.

The judge appeared to agree, saying the Daily Caller should have “time to go through them … for whatever newsworthy value they believe they have.”

State has been swamped with dozens of lawsuits seeking emails sent or received by Clinton during her four years as secretary, as well as emails of her top aides and records on various other topics related to Clinton’s tenure. As the election draws nigh, State has faced demands from many quarters to get particular records out prior to the election.

However, Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, didn’t seem interested in hearing much about that Monday. Instead, he noted that no lawyer from State was present at Monday’s hearing.

“Impress upon them this way of doing business needs to stop,” the judge told Lee. “They’re not feeling the heat.”

The verbal fusillade prompted Lee to step forward with further explanation, but he only managed to utter the words, “Your honor …” before the judge stood and walked off the bench.

“We’ll issue an order,” Leon declared, passing up whatever Lee had planned to say and brusquely leaving the courtroom.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau declined to comment on the case that was in court Monday but sent POLITICO a statement defending her agency's broader transparency efforts.

"The Department strongly believes the Freedom of Information Act is a critical part of maintaining transparency to the public. Generally speaking, there has been a significant surge in FOIA requests to the State Department in recent years and we are working diligently to respond," Trudeau wrote. "The volume of FOIA requests received by the Department has increased 300% since 2008 (6,000 requests per year to over 20,000 per year). In fiscal year 2015 alone we received approximately 22,000 FOIA requests."

Trudeau also said efforts are underway to improve State's responsiveness to public records requests.

"We are taking steps to improve our FOIA process — including conducting FOIA training sessions for staff and working to implement new technologies and best practices. Last year, Secretary Kerry appointed Ambassador Janice Jacobs as Transparency Coordinator to help address records management challenges across the Department," the spokeswoman said.

UPDATE (Monday, 4:13 p.m.): This post has been updated with State Department comment.