WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge opened the door to allowing a conservative legal group to question top aides to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about whether she deliberately sought to thwart open records laws by using a private email server.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled Tuesday that Judicial Watch can prepare a plan for “narrowly tailored discovery” into the circumstances surrounding the Democratic presidential candidate’s use of a home-based email server during her stint as the nation’s top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.
The lawsuit stems from a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records related to the employment status of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s former deputy chief of staff. A longtime confidante, Abedin was allowed to work simultaneously for both the State Department and the Clintons’ private foundation. She is now vice chair of Clinton’s 2016 campaign organization.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called Sullivan’s order “a major victory for the public’s right to know the truth about Hillary Clinton’s email system.”
“The court-ordered discovery will help determine why the State Department and Mrs. Clinton, even despite receiving numerous FOIA requests, kept the record system secret for years,” Fitton said.
A State Department official declined to provide comment about Sullivan’s decision, citing the ongoing litigation.
The judge ordered Judicial Watch to submit its plan by March 15, the date of Democratic Party primaries in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Illinois. The group said it will seek to depose under oath both current and former officials of the State Department, and potentially Clinton herself.
The case is one of dozens of pending civil lawsuits over issues surrounding Clinton’s emails. The FBI is also conducting an investigation into whether classified information passed through the home-based server.
Clinton has turned over to the State Department about 55,000 pages of emails from her time as secretary, but has withheld thousands more she deems private. Judicial Watch said it will seek a judicial order forcing federal agency to subpoena copies of all of Clinton’s emails.
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Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper contributed to this report.
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Follow Michael Biesecker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mbieseck and find his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/michael-biesecker
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Benghazi hearing epic fail number two coming right up!
Don’t understand this. Were FOIA-able emails not released because they were on HRC server? If same emails but from federal server were produced (e.g., from sender or recipient), then I don’t see the isuue. Edit for typos.
Ok, if they are proceeding along this path, a liberal group should seek to question previous republican administration officials to release all their emails they kept on private servers. Personal and gvt. Business emails. If they have been destroyed, then they go directly to jail. They are required to keep copies just as Clinton has… Simple, colin powell and his staff. Any other public official.
One would think the dems would but don’t hold your breath.
Anyone still think “the Establishment” is in the tank for Hillary?