Secretary of State John Kerry has tapped a former career diplomat as an “email czar” to coordinate the State Department response to the myriad of document requests mostly related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which have strained the department’s resources, officials familiar with the appointment tell CNN.
Janice Jacobs will serve as Kerry’s State Department’s Transparency Coordinator, charged with responding to Freedom of Information Act and congressional requests faster and more efficiently and improving the State Department systems for keeping records.
Kerry has sought to balance between trying to ensure the department promptly responds to the various requests without directly undercutting his predecessor and the Democratic party’s presidential front-runner. Privately aides say he has been annoyed at the distraction the controversy has caused for his department, which has at times overshadowed his diplomatic efforts.
One senior official said Jacob’s appointment was “born out of frustration” on Kerry’s part that the State Department has come under fire by federal judges and members of Congress alike for not being responsive to requests by the public and Congress for documents, particularly over the past six months as questions about Clinton’s use of a private email server have prompted an influx of inquiries and lawsuits.
The official added, “He is also bothered frankly by unfair criticism of some of our public servants that have been working hard without enough resources.”
Officials say Kerry tapped Jacobs for her experience in leading reform efforts. As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services in 2002, she was at the center of a major effort to revamp visa issuance policies and how the State Department shared information with law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The State Department was under pressure at that time to show it could prevent terrorists from entering the country with valid U.S. visas in the future, which led to historic changes in Jacobs’ office.
She would later become Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs in 2008, until she retired last year. In that post, she was tasked with clearing up a backlog of passport applications following new requirements for travelers entering the US by air to have passports. The record number of applications led to a massive backlog that caused long delays for millions of Americans attempting to travel abroad.