Discovery Ordered In Clinton Email Case

A federal court ruled on Tuesday that a watchdog group could request testimony from Hillary Clinton’s State Department aides in connection with her private email server, a decision that could eventually lead to a subpoena for Hillary Clinton. As the investigation drags on, some say Clinton allies will split with her and her campaign rather than fall on the sword for her. Sullivan was clearly frustrated by the State Department’s slow and often belated responses.

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, a conservative group that filed the lawsuit, must now submit a discovery plan to the court within three weeks, after which the State Department will have three weeks to respond.

A federal judge paved the way Tuesday for possible future subpoenas by the State Department against Hillary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin. “Our campaign is accustomed to right wing attacks and they’re going to continue”, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said on CNN.

In a statement after the hearing, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said they would seek testimony from current and former State Department officials as part of their discovery plan.

State Department lawyers had argued in court that the testimony was unnecessary because the government had already searched through the emails turned over by Clinton for records related to Abedin’s employment.

The judge said that months of piecemeal revelations to date about Clinton and the State Department’s handling of the email controversy created “at least a “reasonable suspicion” ” that public access to official government records under the federal Freedom of Information Act was undermined. “This is about the public’s right to know”.

The order could amount to a further headache for Clinton as she hopes to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, and amid heated calls from her critics for criminal charges over mishandling of classified information.

The judge, in the FOIA lawsuit, is also considering whether to order the State Department to subpoena all the emails on the clinton.com 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. State has reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The conservative legal watchdog group has been seeking information about Clinton’s use of the private server and other matters that transpired during Clinton’s years as secretary of state, 2009 through 2013.

Furthermore, Myers argued, the State Department should not be expected to search records they don’t physically possess.