A federal judge on Tuesday declared that top aides to former Secretary of State Hillary Clintonshould be questioned under oath about their role in her controversial email setup.
The ruling from Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will allow for conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch to explore whether Clinton’s unusual arrangement amounted to deliberate thwarting of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on behalf of the State Department.
The evidence-gathering process, formally known as discovery, should be “narrowly tailored,” Sullivan warned.
Even so, the order amounts to another legal headache for Clinton as she seeks to win the Democratic presidential nomination amid heated calls from critics who say she should face criminal charges over her handling of classified information.
Tuesday’s order also comes just a week before the State Department is scheduled to release the last of the roughly 30,000 Clinton emails in its possession.
The court order “is a major victory for the public’s right to know the truth about Hillary Clinton’s email system,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
Fitton promised to demand answers from both current and former State Department officials to “determine why the State Department and Mrs. Clinton, even despite receiving numerous FOIA requests, kept the record system secret for years.”
The process of questioning Clinton’s aides — and perhaps even Clinton herself — could drag on for months.
“This case is about the public’s right to know,” declared Sullivan, who was an appointee of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, according to The Washington Post.
“There has been a constant drip, drip, drip of declarations. When does it stop?”
Those drips, Sullivan added, have amounted to “at least a ‘reasonable suspicion’ ” that record keeping laws might have been violated, the Post reported.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-...pens-door-to-new-stage-for-clinton-email-case
The ruling from Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will allow for conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch to explore whether Clinton’s unusual arrangement amounted to deliberate thwarting of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on behalf of the State Department.
The evidence-gathering process, formally known as discovery, should be “narrowly tailored,” Sullivan warned.
Even so, the order amounts to another legal headache for Clinton as she seeks to win the Democratic presidential nomination amid heated calls from critics who say she should face criminal charges over her handling of classified information.
Tuesday’s order also comes just a week before the State Department is scheduled to release the last of the roughly 30,000 Clinton emails in its possession.
The court order “is a major victory for the public’s right to know the truth about Hillary Clinton’s email system,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
Fitton promised to demand answers from both current and former State Department officials to “determine why the State Department and Mrs. Clinton, even despite receiving numerous FOIA requests, kept the record system secret for years.”
The process of questioning Clinton’s aides — and perhaps even Clinton herself — could drag on for months.
“This case is about the public’s right to know,” declared Sullivan, who was an appointee of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, according to The Washington Post.
“There has been a constant drip, drip, drip of declarations. When does it stop?”
Those drips, Sullivan added, have amounted to “at least a ‘reasonable suspicion’ ” that record keeping laws might have been violated, the Post reported.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-...pens-door-to-new-stage-for-clinton-email-case
