The State Department did not rule out the possibility on Friday that it may miss a deadline it requested for the end of February to release the rest of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“I can tell you we’re going to work really, really hard to make that happen,” is all State Department spokesman John Kirby could say during Friday’s press briefing when asked if he was confident that the agency would meet a Feb. 29 deadline it is seeking to release the remainder of Clinton’s emails.
The agency was supposed to release the final batch of Clinton’s work-related records by the end of this month. But last week it filed court papers seeking an extension until Feb. 29 to turn over all of Clinton’s records. Government attorneys claimed that the State Department belatedly discovered more than 7,200 pages of emails that had not been forwarded to other federal agencies for review.
In the court papers filed last week, the State Department said it planned to release 2,053 pages of emails. But it released guidance Friday lowering that total, saying that only 1,000 pages of Clinton’s records would be published.
Kirby also announced on Friday that the State Department will withhold in full the release of 22 Clinton emails that contain “top secret” information. That’s a far higher number of highly classified emails than previously believed. Another 18 emails between Clinton and President Obama will also be withheld, he said.
After Friday’s meager email dump, more than 8,000 pages out of Clinton’s 52,455 work-related emails have yet to be released.
The State Department declined to go on the record when asked in a follow up email if the agency will be able to meet the Feb. 29 deadline.
WATCH: