Judge Orders Additional Look at Clinton Benghazi Emails

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Summary: A judge has asked for an additional investigation into emails to or from Clinton in her state.gov account since they were never investigated.

The State Department has been ordered by a federal judge to look for more emails regarding the Benghazi-Clinton mess. Specifically, Judge Amit Mehta asked for emails from or to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton between aides Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills or Jake Sullivan at state.gov addresses.

  

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Judge Mehta, who was nominated by Obama, stated that the State Department should be searching state.gov emails in addition to the other sites. He said, “This matter is a far cry from a typical FOIA case. Secretary Clinton used a private email server, located in her home, to transmit and receive work-related communications during her tenure as secretary of state.” He wants a report by September 22.

The order comes in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch. The group argues that the searches done of her emails are not good enough because they only covered external sources. The FBI searched her private email server and the emails turned over by Abedin, Mills, and Sullivan in addition to the 30,000 emails she handed over herself. Mehta added, “The sole remaining dispute in this case is the adequacy of State’s search for responsive records.”

He wrote in his opinion that the State Department “has not, however, searched the one records system over which it has always had control and that is almost certain to contain some responsive records: the state.gov email server. If Secretary Clinton sent an email about Benghazi to Abedin, Mills, or Sullivan at his or her state.gov email address, or if one of them sent an email to Secretary Clinton using his or her state.gov account, then State’s server presumably would have captured and stored such an email. State has an obligation to search its own server for responsive records.”

The State Department contends that more searching is not going to turn up anything. A thorough search was done and announced by former FBI Director James Comey in October, right before votes for the presidential election were held. For most of Clinton’s presidential campaign, she had to deal with the controversy regarding her use of a private email server when doing official business with the State Department. Clinton claims this controversy is the reason she lost the election.

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, has several FOIA lawsuits in place for records of the previous administration. This includes the Libya terror attack in 2012 that left four Americans dead. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, “This major court ruling may finally result in more answers about the Benghazi scandal – and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in it – as we approach the attack’s fifth anniversary. It is remarkable that we had to battle both Obama and Trump administrations to break through the State Department’s Benghazi stonewall.”

Do you think the State Department investigation will uncover anything this time around? Tell us in the comments below.

To learn more about the Benghazi email scandal, read these articles:

• Dozens of CIA Operatives on the Ground During Benghazi Attack, but CIA Remains Secretive
• Witnesses to Testify against Clinton that She Attempted to Bar Counterterrorism Bureau on Night of Benghazi Attacks
• Information on Benghazi Attacks to Congress

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org