State Department spokesperson John Kirby compared conflict of interest charges leveled at the department’s new transparency coordinator to undemocratic actions allegedly undertaken by the Turkish government.
“This is the United States of America. It’s a democracy people are allowed to do this sort of thing,” John Kirby told reporters Wednesday, defending Janice Jacobs who was hired as an “email czar” by the department this week to oversee Freedom of Information Act requests with a focus on Hillary Clinton’s much sought-after cache of correspondences.
On Tuesday it was revealed that Jacobs in June donated $2,700 to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign
Kirby said Wednesday that the department didn’t know about the gift, but claimed it has “no relevance on her ability to do this job, to do it objectively, fairly.”
Kirby then went a step further, alleging that reporters’ inquiries on the matter tread dangerously close to weakening civil society in America.
“I think that’s a very bad place for us to be if we’re going to start criticizing people for campaign contributions that they make in their private time,” he said, chastising reporters.
“I just got done talking about our concerns in Turkey and media freedoms and civil society and how we expect the Turks to live up to their core values and their democratic institutions. We need to do that here, too,” Kirby said.
AP reporter Matt Lee responded, charging that Kirby had missed the entire point of the line of questioning.
“No one is criticizing her for making the donations,” Lee said. “If there’s any criticism, it’s directed at the State Department.”
Lee added that the Jacobs’ political donation “demonstrated a preference in a political candidate who happens to be at the very center of an issue she’s been named to take on.”
That, according to Lee, “lends itself to the appearance of a potential conflict of interest.”
“I take your point,” Kirby responded. “I kinda disagree.”
Jacobs worked at the State Department between 2002 and 2014. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services until 2008. She then became Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs until retiring last year.
