"A portion of the State Department’s December 2, 2013 press briefing was missing from the video we posted on our Youtube account and on our website," Kirby stated. "I asked the office of the legal advisor to look at this [and] they learned that a specific request was made to excise that portion of the briefing."
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland was the press secretary at the time, Kirby noted, and the excised portion dealt with the Iranian nuclear negotiations, but the United States does not know who made the request to edit the video.
Deliberately removing portions of the press briefing video, Kirby added, was not in keeping with the State Department’s commitment to transparency, but does not warrant a larger probe.
"While I believe it was an inappropriate step to take, I see little foundation for pressing forward with a formal investigation," Kirby explained.
On May 10, State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau said FOX News had raised the issue of the ghost video excerpt, which she said was due to a technical "glitch."
The full transcript of the briefing in question was always available on State.gov, according to the State Department.
