Sec. Kerry Orders State Department to Investigate Cover-Up

By 

Jay Sekulow

|
June 9, 2016

3 min read

Executive Power

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Yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry ordered the State Department to investigate the State Department’s intentional deletion of a 2013 briefing where its spokesperson admitted that the Obama Administration misled the American people about the Iran nuclear deal.

This comes as the ACLJ expects a response later this week to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on this matter (something the State Department is legally required to comply with).

The Washington Examiner has more details on the investigation:

Secretary of State John Kerry has ordered the State Department to re-examine how a video of a 2013 video came to be edited to remove a sensitive discussion about the Iran nuclear agreement.

Last week, spokesmen for the department said it hit a "dead end" in its investigation, which failed to determine who ordered the video to be edited. But on Wednesday, spokesman Mark Toner said Kerry insisted that officials try again.

"Given the secretary's strong interest, given Congress' strong interest and given the media's strong interest, we've decided to continue to look at that," he said. Kerry had called the entire episode "stupid" and "clumsy."

"Basically because the secretary said he wants to dive deeper into this, [State will] look more into what happened, and try to get to the bottom of what happened," he said.

This is a step in the right direction – but we won’t stop demanding justice until the American people have all the answers.  The Obama Administration must do more than simply pay lip service to the notion of government transparency and accountability.

Last week, State Department spokesman Mark Toner claimed the investigation had reached a dead end.  But today, he said that there are always other leads that can be followed. He admitted that the technician who made the edit does know the gender of the person who called and asked for the edit to be made.

This is what happens when we don’t accept excuses and denials as answers.  This is what happens when we demand the truth about the Obama Administration’s lies.  Nearly 37,000 of you have signed our petition.  We sent a FOIA request to the State Department demanding the truth.

But we won’t stop here. Although Secretary Kerry’s steps today are a positive development, it’s not enough.  Until the American people know the full truth, we won’t back down.

We’re not just talking about this issue.  We’re taking action.  And if we have to take the Obama Administration to federal court, we will.

Help us demand justice, transparency, and accountability. Sign our petition today.