Deleted Clinton emails now likely subject to open records requests

Justice Department officials may soon be forced to publish the thousands of undisclosed emails discovered on Hillary Clinton's private servers thanks to a court ruling that could expose the work-related messages to open records requests.

The same day FBI Director James Comey announced his team had recovered an unspecified number of deleted emails from Clinton's network, a federal appeals court decided personal inboxes could no longer be considered safe spaces for records that would otherwise require disclosure under transparency laws.

The federal court ruled Tuesday that work-related emails hidden in private email accounts could be requested under the Freedom of Information Act, a decision that overturned a previous ruling made in U.S. District Court.

The judge ruled that "an agency cannot shield its records from search or disclosure under FOIA by the expedient of storing them in a private email account controlled by the agency head," according to court documents.

While the case was unrelated to the Clinton email controversy, it could open the door for media outlets and watchdog groups to obtain the official emails that FBI agents recovered from Clinton's private servers.