Your
Judicial Watch had a remarkably successful week, finally breaking open
the Hillary Clinton email scandal. Now, the American people may finally
get answers directly from Mrs. Clinton about her email gamesmanship -
under penalty of perjury! The developments come in a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit
that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma
Abedin, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)). The lawsuit was reopened last month because of revelations about Hillary Clinton's email records.
Late
last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the U.S.
State Department to request that Hillary Clinton and her top aides
confirm, under penalty of perjury, that they have produced all
government records in their possession, return any other government
records immediately, and describe their use of Hillary Clinton's email
server to conduct government business. The court issued the order after
holding a status hearing earlier in the day on our Abedin FOIA lawsuit. The text of Judge Sullivan's order to the State Department is worth reviewing:
As
agreed by the parties at the July 31, 2015 status hearing, the
Government shall produce a copy of the letters sent by the State
Department to Mrs. Hillary Clinton, Ms. Huma Abedin and Ms. Cheryl Mills
regarding the collection of government records in their possession.
These communications shall be posted on the docket forthwith. The
Government has also agreed to share with Plaintiff's counsel the
responses sent by Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Abedin and Ms. Mills. These
communications shall also be posted on the docket forthwith. In
addition, as related to Judicial Watch's FOIA requests in this case, the
Government is HEREBY ORDERED to: (1) identify any and all servers,
accounts, hard drives, or other devices currently in the possession or
control of the State Department or otherwise that may contain responsive
information; (2) request that the above named individuals confirm,
under penalty of perjury, that they have produced all responsive
information that was or is in their possession as a result of their
employment at the State Department. If all such information has not yet
been produced, the Government shall request the above named individuals
produce the information forthwith; and (3) request that the above named
individuals describe, under penalty of perjury, the extent to which Ms.
Abedin and Ms. Mills used Mrs. Clinton's email server to conduct
official government business. The Government shall inform the Court of
the status of its compliance with this Order no later than August 7,
2015, including any response received from Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Abedin and
Ms. Mills. Signed by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on July 31, 2015.
The
State Department finally complied with part of Judge Sullivan's order
and yesterday provided the letters it sent asking for the government
records in the possession of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
and her aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills. The Obama State Department
also included the responses to the document requests from
representatives for the three officials. The letters show that, on July
31, the State Department, for the first time, demanded that Mills and
Abedin "return all copies of potential federal records in your
possession." The State Department did not provide correspondence
demanding Mrs. Clinton return all copies of potential federal records.
Despite
the court's July 31 order for immediate disclosure, the State
Department and its Justice Department attorneys took six days to
disclose the 13 letters, which total 19 pages. The letters also show
that the State Department asked no questions of Clinton, Mills, and
Abedin about Mrs. Clinton's separate email system or classified
material.
That's
significant because it tells us the Obama State Department stonewalled a
federal court order by waiting six days to produce these letters. One
can see why the Obama administration would risk contempt of court. This
new information shows that Hillary Clinton is getting special treatment
from the State Department and that the agency took no action to find out
details about Hillary Clinton's notorious email system.
You'll
see below how the Obama State Department is allowing Hillary Clinton
and her aides to stall and play games with federal records in violation
of law.
Yesterday's court filing includes a March 24
letter in which Mills' attorneys acknowledge: "We believe that Ms.
Mills may have documents responsive to your letter, and will work with
her to produce any such documents to you as soon as possible." Three
full months later, on June 25, Mills attorneys turn over some of the requested records but request more time to turn over other records.
On June 29,
Huma Abedin's attorneys try to explain to State the three-month delay
in response to its March 11 request, saying that Abedin did not receive
its request until May 19:
The
Department's initial correspondence sent by mail and dated March 11,
2015, was returned undelivered to the Department on April 17, 2015.
Similarly, we understand that your office attempted to send an
electronic mail copy of that letter to Ms. Abedin, but that email was
sent to domains (@clinton.senate.gov and @hillaryclinton.com) that as of
March 2015, had not been active for the past several years.
The letter goes on to reference another Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit:
We
also understand that the Department is defending a lawsuit brought
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding a request for a)
copies of any updates and/or talking points given to Ambassador Rice by
the White House or any federal agency concerning, regarding or related
to the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi,
Libya; and b) any and all records or communications concerning,
regarding or relating to talking points or updates on the Benghazi
attack given to Ambassador Rice by the White House or any federal
agency. To date, in the course of our review, we have not identified
documents responsive to this FOIA request.
Abedin's attorneys sent a July 9
letter stating: "Enclosed herewith are documents identified by Ms.
Abedin as responsive or potentially responsive to the [Benghazi] Select
Committee's request and therefore also to your request." The State
Department had requested the record four months earlier, on March 11.
In July 31 letters to Abedin's and Mills'
attorneys, Patrick F. Kennedy, Under Secretary for Management at State,
asks "that you and your client now take steps to return all copies of
potential federal records in your possession to the Department as soon
as possible." Rather than allowing Abedin and Mills to retain the
records for further review, Kennedy gives instructions that State will
maintain the documents and make them available to the attorneys and
their clients "during regular working hours at the Department." Adding a
new level of scrutiny, State specifies:
To
the extent documents are stored electronically, we ask that you please
copy them onto a digital video disc or compact disc ... The Department
asks that the documents be provided in original/native electronic format
with the associated metadata ...
Judicial
Watch also has active but unanswered FOIA requests to the State
Department for certain emails to be produced in native format with
associated metadata.
These
two letters seem to have only been sent after Judge Sullivan's court
hearing during which U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered
that the correspondence about State Department efforts to retrieve
records be disclosed "forthwith."
Recall that it was over four months ago, on March 2, 2015, that The New York Times
reported then-Secretary Clinton used at least one non-"state.gov" email
account to conduct official government business during her entire
tenure as the secretary of state. It also was reported that Secretary
Clinton stored these records on a non-U.S. government server at her home
in Chappaqua, New York.
Your
Judicial Watch has nearly 20 federal lawsuits that touch on Mrs.
Clinton and her staff's use of secret email accounts to conduct official
government business. In our various FOIA lawsuits, our lawyers have
informed attorneys for the Obama administration that Hillary Clinton's
account and any other secret accounts used by State employees should be
secured, recovered and searched.
It's
difficult to overstate the importance of what has transpired here.
Judge Sullivan's blockbuster ruling is the most significant legal
development to date in the ongoing Clinton email scandal. Hillary
Clinton will now have to answer, under penalty of perjury, to a federal
court about the separate email server she and her aides used to avoid
accountability to the American people. This court action shows that the
rule of law and public's right to know will no longer take a back seat
to politics. Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration that is
covering for her are not above the law.
The
Republican leadership in Congress is inexcusably AWOL on its
constitutional oversight responsibilities. The liberal media both
support Hillary Clinton and are cowed by her notorious intimidation
tactics. And the Obama administration is, at best, a co-conspirator in
this scandal. The Obama administration is looking for that poor dentist that allegedly shot a lion but the FBI can't bother to secure Hillary Clinton's email that has classified information.
So
once again, it is your Judicial Watch that proves to be the most
effective entity this great nation has for forcing corrupt politicians
such as Hillary Clinton to be accountable to the rule of law. If you
aren't supporting our work, I hope you now will. And if you have supported our work, thank you (and feel free to support us some more!).
