Judicial Watch has tried for years to get records of Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s employment outside of the State Department, which has led to questions about Clinton’s private email server. The watchdog group has continuously received her emails from her time as Secretary of State, but overall the group does not believe Hillary has ever provided a justified answer as to why she used this server.
Now, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Federal District Court in Washington put Judicial Watch a step closer by telling Hillary she must provide written testimony under oath, also known as interrogatories, about her private email server in connection to Judicial Watch’s lawsuit.
He wrote:
The Court is persuaded that Secretary Clinton’s testimony is necessary to enable her to explain on the record the purpose for the creation and operation of the clintonemail.com system for State Department business.
The watchdog group asked “permission to depose Clinton; the Director of Office of Correspondence and Records of the Executive Secretariat (“S/ES-CRM”) Clarence Finney; and [former Director of Informatio Resource Management of the Executive Secretariat (“S/ES-IRM”) John] Bentel.” They wanted to question Hillary in person while under oath, but Sullivan denied their request. He continued:
“Secretary Clinton has unique firsthand knowledge of the purpose for the creation and operation of the clintonemail.com system for State Department business,” Judge Sullivan wrote in his opinion.But, he added, “Judicial Watch has failed to demonstrate that it cannot obtain the discovery it seeks through other, less burdensome or intrusive means.”
The court wrote:
[T] the State Department shall release all remaining documents responsive to Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act request by no later than September 30, 2016; and it is FURTHER ORDERED that, consistent with Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Judicial Watch may serve interrogatories on Secretary Clinton by no later than October 14, 2016 … Secretary Clinton’s responses are due by no later than thirty days thereafter … Judicial Watch may depose Mr. Bentel by no later than October 31, 2016.
The announcement comes days after Judicial Watch said the State Department will hand over “all emails sent or received by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that were uncovered by the FBI in its investigation.” Clinton did not provide this entire disc of documents to the State in December 2014, but the FBI managed to unearth them. The emails fall between February 2, 2009 to January 13, 2013.
Of course, Hillary’s campaign said Judicial Watch’s investigation is only intended to hurt her campaign. But the watchdog’s group investigation has showed the former Secretary of State had many security problems with her private email server and that many of her major donors at her foundation asked for favors.
Kemberlee blogged yesterday that Clinton told the FB that former Secretary of State Colin Powell “advised her to use a private email account.” However, Powell immediately denied any involvement:
The FBI caused waves in July when FBI Director James Comey said he will not recommend the Department of Justice press charges against Hillary, even though he admitted she and her staff were “extremely careless” using her private server.
They recently sent Congress their Hillary interview notes and heavily redacted emails so the House Oversight Committee could understand why they didn’t want to press charges. But Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) blasted them since they redacted so much information.
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