US State Department reveals proposed timeline for release of Hillary Clinton emails

The State Department filed a proposal on 26 May to continue the release of emails from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton from her time as secretary of state.

The proposed release would begin on the agency's website on 30 June, with new batches of emails released every 60 days, the Associated Press reported. The agency hopes to make all of the private emails publicly available by 15 January 2016.

According to the AP, US District Judge Rudolph Contreras posted a "proposed order" that indicated he would approve the agency's proposed release schedule.

"The Department is keenly aware of the intense public interest in the documents and wants to get releasable materials out as soon as possible," Justice Department lawyers representing the agency wrote.

"Further, the Department will continue to explore ways to devote more resources to this effort, consistent with its other obligations, to complete the review even earlier," the attorneys wrote.

First batch of emails released on 22 May

The State Department released the first batch of 296 private emails on 22 May. Many of the emails, which had been provided to a congressional committee, showed Clinton's concern over her public image following the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

The agency is reviewing about 55,000 pages of Clinton's private emails. The judge's order to the State Department to release the emails sooner than January as a response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Vice News's reporter Jason Leopold.

The AP reported that Leopold's lawyer, Ryan James, told reporters he will file a response calling on the agency to release emails every two weeks.

James released a statement saying: "I do not believe that additional rolling productions every 60 days is sufficiently frequent to enable the public to engage in fully informed discussion about Secretary Clinton's leadership style and decisions while at the helm of the State Department."