A years-long legal fight over Hillary Clinton’s emails took another turn when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered additional fact-finding from State Department officials on Thursday.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth authorized nearly all of what conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch sought in a recent status report for its case related to the former secretary of state’s unauthorized email server, including the depositions of seven department officials over the next four months. This includes Jamie Bair, an attorney in the Office of the Legal Adviser who was assigned to Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information request and its lawsuit, and Tasha Thian, a State Department records officer who wrote about Clinton’s email practices in a 2018 book. Three of the officials’ names are redacted.
Two requests from Judicial Watch that remain pending are for depositions with Clinton herself and her former chief of staff Cheryl Mills. Their attorneys have 30 days to oppose, and Judicial Watch will then have about two weeks to respond.
Written sets of questions, known as interrogatories, will also be sent to the State Department and Justice Department regarding Judicial Watch’s FOIA request. Document requests were also granted, which touch on possible email exchanges related to Clinton and her associates, including an “after action memo” created by Clinton attorney Heather Samuelson around December 2014 to memorialize her team’s search for and processing of the Clinton emails. Judicial Watch said lawyers for the Justice and State Departments oppose their request for more records.
Nearly a dozen witnesses, current and former Obama administration officials and Clinton aides, have already been deposed as part of this FOIA lawsuit, stemming back to 2014. According to Judicial Watch attorney Ramona Cotca, the judge said their testimony raised more questions than answers about Clinton’s use of an unauthorized server to conduct government business.
Lamberth also wants more information about a Gmail account set up to archive the Clinton’s emails by an IT aide she hired, according to Fox News. A memo released by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson last week showed that the tech specialist, Paul Combetta, used an email address that bore a very similar name to a Chinese-owned company, which may have led to fears that China had hacked Clinton’s server.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who claims there was a “scandal” to cover up the Clinton emails, said Lamberth encouraged his group to “shake the tree” on this issue.
The FBI investigated Clinton’s use of the server, hosted in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, New York, and although they found Clinton’s team was “extremely careless” in handling classified emails, no criminal charges were recommended against anyone involved with Clinton’s private email network.
Earlier this summer, the State Department informed Congress that a review of the mishandling of classified information found 23 “violations” and seven “infractions” by 15 individuals. A “broad range” of disciplinary or administrative actions that could be taken include “counseling, reprimand, suspension, and/or separation,” a letter stated.
One of the main controversies stemming from Clinton’s emails was how Combetta deleted 33,000 emails despite a congressional order to preserve them. The FBI says it was only able to recover about 5,000 of the emails Combetta scrubbed, and they were released in tranches up until earlier this year as part of a lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch. Clinton has said she “never received nor sent any material that was marked classified,” but the FBI found 110 emails did contain classified information.
Clinton’s security clearance was withdrawn in the fall of 2018 at her request, along with those belonging to Mills and others.
