Judge orders more facts in Clinton's electronic case



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                  Judge Royce Lamberth of the US Federal Court, who clashed with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her collaborators in business dating back to her husband's administration, was indefatigable evaluation of Clinton's actions | Jeff Swensen / Getty Images </p>
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Legal

In a stinging opinion Thursday, the judge US Federal Court Judge Royce Lamberth said that despite investigations by the FBI, the Inspector General and Congress on the use by Clinton of a private account for all of his business traffic Email During his four year secretary of state, the conservative Judicial Watch group should be allowed to require additional documents and testimonials about the practice.

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Lamberth, who clashed with Clinton and his assistants in matters going back to the administration of her husband, was ruthless in her assessment of the actions of her husband. former secretary. He described Clinton's messaging practices as "one of the most serious offenses against government transparency."

Lamberth is also concerned that lawyers from the Department of Justice and the Department of State misled the court when they attempted to conclude at the end of 2014. Judicial Watch's FOIA lawsuit about Benghazi, though some officials knew that Clinton had received tens of thousands of emails on a private system and had agreed to sell many of them to State at his request .

map near the chest, "complained the judge. "At best, the attempts of the state to make its deficient research legally adequate in the settlement negotiations were a fault of incompetence. In the worst case, career employees of state and justice departments have teamed up to escape Clinton's critical review, the FOIA skirt and the flaw of this court. "

Lamberth, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, also criticized the Trump administration for failing to resolve the problem and decided to continue to adopt a dead-end approach.

"The current Department of Justice has worsened the situation," said the judge, referring to an October hearing in which he had initially categorically accused the lawyers from the Department of Justice to lie before retiring a little.

In the 11-page order published Thursday, Lamberth refrained from alleging pure dishonesty, but he approached it.

"Lawyers' answers tarnish credulity," he writes. "To preserve the integrity of the department and reassure the American people that its government remains committed to transparency and the rule of law, this suspicion must not be allowed to escalate."

The judge suggests that some Clinton Department of Justice and Department of Justice employees may have tried to keep emails from the public. He added that messages eventually published by the State Department showed Mrs. Clinton that she was informing her daughter, Chelsea, that the attack in Benghazi, Libya, was a terrorist attack even if the Obama administration had long claimed that this was not the case.

argued that they had no legal obligation to search for documents that were not in the possession of the Department of State at the time a FOIA request was made, and that lawyers working on the lawsuit in front of Lamberth did not have as much information about what Clinton had forwarded senior officials.

However, Lamberth challenged the narrow view of the state as to its legal obligations.

"Legally, it's wrong," he wrote, noting precedents (one of them being his own) claiming that documents mistakenly removed from an agency sometimes have to be searched wherever they are.

Department of Justice The lawyers argued that further investigation on the private Clinton server would be pointless given the lengthy investigation by the FBI and information collected by Judicial Watch in the setting of a judicial inquiry ordered by another judge. As a result, written questions were submitted to Clinton and some of his senior aides were forced to sit for testimony in another Judicial Watch case before the 2016 elections.

was not in agreement. He added that the private email accounts used by many of Clinton's key collaborators were still unclear. He also said that the public did not know why the state had attempted to settle the FOIA case in late 2014 and early 2015, while some officials knew at least that a huge Clinton's email quantity had not been searched.

The judge did not allow any specific evidence or summons on Thursday. Instead, he ordered the two parties to consult each other on a discovery plan and report back within 10 days.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice declined to comment immediately on the decision. Clinton's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said he hoped the decision by Lamberth would ensure that the people named by President Donald Trump in the Justice Department changed direction. A more cooperative approach.

"Historic court ruling raises concerns over Hillary Clinton's email scandal and government corruption that millions of Americans share," Fitton said in a statement . "Judicial Watch is looking forward to making a thorough discovery of Clinton's e-mail and we hope that the Department of Justice and the Department of State recognize the criticisms and assistance of Judge Lamberth and help them, rather that to prevent, this discovery ordered by the court. "

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