The lawsuit probing Hillary’s use of a homebrewed server while serving as Secretary of State was revived Tuesday.
The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals found error with a lower court’s judgement which tossed out complaints targeting Hillary’s emails.
Politico reported:
A three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Tuesday that a lower court judge erred when he threw out the cases as moot after the State Department received tens of thousands of emails from Clinton and more from the FBI following the criminal investigation it conducted.Watchdog groups Judicial Watch and Cause of Action filed separate suits in 2015, asking that Secretary of State John Kerry and the head of the National Archives, Archivist David Ferriero, be required to refer the Clinton email issue to the Justice Department to consider filing a civil suit to get missing federal records back.D.C. Circuit Judge Stephen Williams said State’s requests to Clinton and the FBI for copies of Clinton’s emails were not necessarily enough to fulfill State’s obligation to pursue any missing messages.
Congressional Democrats repeatedly accused Republican lawmakers of using Hillary’s private email account, which was uncovered during the House Select Committee on Benghazi’s investigation, as political fodder to sink her presidential campaign.
Politics aside, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals holds the Archivist is required, under the Federal Records Act, to “take enforcement action through the Attorney General” within a reasonable period of time if attempts to make the archive whole were unsuccessful.
From the opinion:
“Instead of proceeding through the Attorney General, the Department asked the former Secretary to return her emails voluntarily and similarly requested that the FBI share any records it obtained. Even though those efforts bore some fruit, the Department has not explained why shaking the tree harder—e.g., by following the statutory mandate to seek action by the Attorney General—might not bear more still. It is therefore abundantly clear that, in terms of assuring government recovery of emails, appellants have not “been given everything [they] asked for.” Noble v. Sombrotto, 525 F.3d 1230, 1241 (D.C. Cir. 2008). Absent a showing that the requested enforcement action could not shake loose a few more emails, the case is not moot.”
Full opinion here:
JW v Kerry Appeal Victory 16 5015 by Legal Insurrection on Scribd
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