To Sonya Gilliam, a recent account of improper document sorting at the State Department brought back vivid memories of her own encounters with high-level government officials who withheld, deleted or destroyed public records.
And one name stood out for its familiarity: Cheryl Mills.
A former deputy assistant secretary of state had told The Daily Signal that Mills was present during an after-hours document operation in a basement room of the State Department in October 2012. Mills was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The purpose of the session, former State Department official Raymond Maxwell said, was to “separate” documents damaging to Clinton before records were turned over to an independent review board probing the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Mills declined to comment on Maxwell’s account to The Daily Signal.
“My stomach dropped,” Gilliam says about hearing the allegation last month that Mills was involved in Benghazi document sorting:
Back then, Mills was deputy White House counsel to President Clinton. At the time, multiple probes sought to determine whether the administration was fundraising illegally by selling seats on Commerce Department trade missions.
‘Cheryl Says No’
Gilliam says she sat through countless task force meetings convened to respond to demands that began in 1994 for relevant records under FOIA requests and, later, from Congress, grand juries and news media.
Prying key documents from the Clinton administration’s political grip proved an often-impossible task, she says.
“Meantime, the clock is ticking and it’s illegal to not respond according to the law within the time frame,” Gilliam told The Daily Signal in an interview.
Gilliam says that supervising attorneys at the Commerce Department told her, “We’re waiting on Cheryl Mills.”
“I said, ‘Who is Cheryl Mills?’ ‘Oh, she is the deputy counsel to the president.’
“I about dropped my jaw. I said, ‘What are documents doing over with Cheryl Mills?’ ”
Gilliam says the answer was that the document release by Commerce had to be “coordinated” with the White House.
more
Account of Document Control Familiar to Career Public Servant
And one name stood out for its familiarity: Cheryl Mills.
A former deputy assistant secretary of state had told The Daily Signal that Mills was present during an after-hours document operation in a basement room of the State Department in October 2012. Mills was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The purpose of the session, former State Department official Raymond Maxwell said, was to “separate” documents damaging to Clinton before records were turned over to an independent review board probing the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Mills declined to comment on Maxwell’s account to The Daily Signal.
“My stomach dropped,” Gilliam says about hearing the allegation last month that Mills was involved in Benghazi document sorting:
I said to myself, oh my gosh, here we are, 14 or 15 years later, [and] Cheryl Mills is still in charge of document ‘production’—I’ll use that term loosely.
Gilliam, now retired, was responsible for Commerce Department responses to Freedom of Information Act requests during the Clinton administration.
Back then, Mills was deputy White House counsel to President Clinton. At the time, multiple probes sought to determine whether the administration was fundraising illegally by selling seats on Commerce Department trade missions.
‘Cheryl Says No’
Gilliam says she sat through countless task force meetings convened to respond to demands that began in 1994 for relevant records under FOIA requests and, later, from Congress, grand juries and news media.
Prying key documents from the Clinton administration’s political grip proved an often-impossible task, she says.
“Meantime, the clock is ticking and it’s illegal to not respond according to the law within the time frame,” Gilliam told The Daily Signal in an interview.
Gilliam says that supervising attorneys at the Commerce Department told her, “We’re waiting on Cheryl Mills.”
“I said, ‘Who is Cheryl Mills?’ ‘Oh, she is the deputy counsel to the president.’
“I about dropped my jaw. I said, ‘What are documents doing over with Cheryl Mills?’ ”
Gilliam says the answer was that the document release by Commerce had to be “coordinated” with the White House.
more
Account of Document Control Familiar to Career Public Servant