US judge orders release of Hillary Clinton’s emails

A US federal judge has ruled that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails during her time at the State Department must be made public on a rolling basis instead of waiting for a mass release in January 2016.

US District Judge Rudolph Contreras rejected on Tuesday the State Department’s proposal to wait until January to release over 50,000 emails written by Clinton from 2009 to 2013.

Judge Contreras also ordered that the State Department propose a deadline for producing Clinton’s 300 emails relating to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The judge, an appointee of President Barack Obama, gave the State Department until May 26 to come up with a plan.

Clinton, who announced her bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination last month, is facing scrutiny for using her own private email server to conduct government business during her tenure as Secretary of State.

She and her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, have also come under increasing criticism for their financial activities and giving highly paid speeches in recent years.

The couple has now earned more than $125 million on the speaking circuit since they left the White House in 2001.

The Clintons’ income puts them at the upper end of the top 0.1 percent of earners in the US population, according to government data. The exorbitant pay for light work can distance them from the realities most Americans experience at their jobs.

Last year’s total income makes Clinton among the wealthiest of the 2016 presidential candidates. This could create challenges as she tries to present herself as a “champion” of everyday Americans in an era of vast income inequality.