Weekly Update: BIG Court Victory on Clinton Emails and Benghazi

Judicial Watch ^ | January 18, 2019 | Tom Fitton

[jazusamo]

Court Orders Discovery to Begin on Clinton Email / Benghazi Scandals
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Court Orders Discovery to Begin on Clinton Email / Benghazi Scandals

Last week, I reported to you that we had submitted a court-ordered discovery plan for the depositions of several top former government officials involved in the Clinton email scandal, including Obama administration senior officials Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Jacob Sullivan, and FBI official E.W. Priestap.

This week I am pleased to tell you that U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth has ruled that discovery can begin. We will now depose Obama administration senior State Department officials, lawyers, and Clinton aides under oath.

Senior officials — including Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Jacob Sullivan, and FBI official E.W. Priestap — will now have to answer our written questions. The court rejected the DOJ and State Department’s objections to our discovery plan . (The court, in ordering a discovery plan last month, ruled that the Clinton email system was “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.”)

We will seek answers to:

• Whether Clinton intentionally attempted to evade the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by using a non-government email system;
• whether the State Department’s efforts to settle this case beginning in late 2014 amounted to bad faith; and
• whether the State Department adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request.

The court will hold a post-discovery hearing to determine if we may also depose additional witnesses, including Clinton and her former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills.

Rice and Rhodes will answer interrogatories under oath regarding the Benghazi scandal. Rejecting the State and Justice Department’s objections to discovery on the infamous Benghazi talking points , Judge Lamberth reiterated:

Yet Rice’s talking points and State’s understanding of the attack play an unavoidably central role in this case: information about the points’ development and content, as well as their discussion and dissemination before and after Rice’s appearances could reveal unsearched, relevant records; State’s role in the points’ content and development could shed light on Clinton’s motives for shielding her emails from FOIA requesters or on State’s reluctance to search her emails.

We may also serve interrogatories on Monica Hanley, a former staff member in the State Department’s Office of the Secretary, and on Lauren Jiloty, Clinton’s former special assistant.

According to Lamberth’s order, regarding whether Clinton’s private email use while Secretary of State was an intentional attempt to evade FOIA, we may depose:

1. Eric Boswell, the former Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security .… Boswell’s March 2009 memo to Mills … discusses security risks Clinton’s Blackberry use posed more generally. And Boswell personally discussed the memo with Clinton. So, he plainly has relevant information about that conversation and about his general knowledge of Clinton’s email use. Judicial Watch may depose Boswell.
2. Justin Cooper. the Clinton Foundation employee who created the clintonemail.com server . In its proposal, Judicial Watch noted Cooper’s prior congressional testimony “appears to contradict portions of the testimony provided by Huma Abedin in the case before Judge Sullivan.” … Cooper repeatedly told Congress that Abedin helped set-up the Clintons’ private server, e.g., Examining Preservation of State Department Federal Records: [before a Congressional hearing] Abedin testified under oath she did not know about the server until six years later.… Judicial Watch may depose Cooper.
3. Clarence Finney, the former deputy director of State’s Executive Secretariat staff …. [T]his case’s questions hinge on what specific State employees knew and when they knew it. As the principal advisor and records management expert responsible for controlling Clinton’s official correspondence and records, Finney’s knowledge is particularly relevant. And especially given the concerns about government misconduct that prompted this discovery, Judicial Watch’s ability to take his direct testimony and ask follow-up questions is critical.

***

Judicial Watch seeks to go beyond cursory, second-hand testimony and directly ask Finney what he knew about Clinton’s email use. This includes asking about emails suggesting he knew about her private email use in 2014, and emails he received concerning a December 2012 FOIA request from Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW) regarding senior officials’ personal email use-topics State’s 30(b)(6) deposition in Judge Sullivan’s case never addressed. Judicial Watch may depose Finney.

4. Heather Samuelson. the former State Department senior advisor who helped facilitate State’s receipt of Hillary Clinton’s emails. … [T]his case turns on what specific government employees knew and when they knew it. Judicial Watch must be able to take their direct testimony and ask them follow-up questions. Judicial Watch may depose Samuelson.
5. Jacob Sullivan. Secretary Clinton’s former senior advisor and deputy Chief of Staff . The government does not oppose Sullivan’s deposition.

Regarding whether the State Department’s settlement attempts that began in late 2014 amounted to “bad faith,” we were granted depositions from the State Department under Rule 30(b)(6); Finney; John Hackett, the former deputy director of State’s Office of Information Programs & Services; Gene Smilansky, an attorney-advisor within State’s Office of the Legal Advisor; Samuelson; and others.

We were also granted interrogatories on whether the State Department adequately searched for responsive records, as well as several document requests .

This is a major victory for accountability, and you no doubt recognize the significance of Judge Lamberth’s authorizing us to take discovery on whether the Clinton email system evaded FOIA and whether the Benghazi scandal was one reason for keeping Mrs. Clinton’s email secret.

The court-ordered discovery is the latest development in our July 2014 FOIA lawsuit filed after the U.S. Department of State failed to respond to a May 13, 2014 FOIA request ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:14-cv-01242)). Judicial Watch seeks:

• 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.
• 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.

Our discovery plan was in response to a December 6, 2018, ruling by Judge Lamberth.

Incredibly, Justice Department attorneys admit in a filing opposing our limited discovery that, “Counsel for State contacted the counsel of some third parties that Plaintiff originally included in its draft discovery proposal to obtain their client’s position on being deposed.” This collusion occurred despite criticism from the Court that the DOJ engaged in “chicanery” to cover up misconduct and that career employees in the State and Justice Departments may have “colluded to scuttle public scrutiny of Clinton, skirt FOIA, and hoodwink this Court.”

We countered that “[t]he government’s proposal, which is really nothing more than an opposition to [Judicial Watch’s] plan, demonstrates that it continues to reject any impropriety on its part and that it seeks to block any meaningful inquiry into its ‘outrageous misconduct.’”

Keep in mind that our FOIA lawsuit led directly to the disclosure of the Clinton email system in 2015. Had we not been pursuing the truth, who knows if it would have ever come to light.

I talked about this major development with told Harris Faulkner at Fox News earlier this week. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to keep you updated as appropriate as discovery proceeds.

Documents Detail Nancy Pelosi’s CODEL Travel in 2015

Continued

[jazusamo]

Off the Wall Ping!

Contact to be added.

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“We will now depose Obama administration senior State Department officials, lawyers, and Clinton aides under oath.”

I WISH putting Dems under oath had some TEETH! I can already hear, ‘I can’t recall’ ‘I don’t remember’ ‘Under advice of Council, I...’

Wish I weren’t so jaded, but I really don’t think I’ll see any ‘Rat/Clinton JUSTICE in my lifetime. :(

However, I applaud JW for at least TRYING! :)

[thoughtomator]

I predict a majority will claim the Fifth.

[DrDude]

How many years delay do these people get from this point forward? I can’t believe these witnesses would want to wait any longer. Gonna be dead if they don’t follow up ASAP. Clintons still calling all the shots.

Great work, again, by JW. Everyone else-Not so much!

[jazusamo]

Sadly, I believe you’re both correct. It would be a pleasant surprise to be wrong.

[jazusamo]

Well said Bump!

[DownInFlames]

Has anyone oticed that both Clinton’s and Obama have been very quite these past 2 weeks?

[mo]

correct me if I’m wrong, but JW over the years has been far more effective at raising cash than obtaining convictions

[USS Alaska]

However, I applaud JW for at least TRYING!

Since Tom Finton took over at JW, I donate a few bucks and he is worth it.

Trapping the klintoons is like snipe hunt'en.

[allendale]

Fine. However will never forgive Trey Gowdy for not obtaining testimony from the Admiral commanding the 6th Fleet during Benghazi. The 6th Fleet patrols the eastern Med and no doubt monitored the frenzied distress calls coming from the besieged Americans. Any Commander would have steamed at flank speed toward Benghazi and organized on board Marines and Seals to launch on helicopters to relieve and save those Americans. Someone ordered them to stand down. Who was it and why? Gowdy blew it.

[RideForever]

If answers to questions about exculpatory facts are not answered, a motion to compel is made; and if granted the questions are asked under threat of terminating sanctions, where the party refusing to answer is faced with automatic loss of the case.

IANAL - I am not a lawyer. This should not be considered a legal opinion, but an observation from a citizen with recent court experience (I lost when a judge and 3 justices all disagreed with the dictionary definition I supplied that illgal acts are wrongful).

[Jeff Chandler]

Gowdy appears to be just another Deep State politico blustering in front of the cameras.

[grumpygresh]

“The court-ordered discovery is the latest development in our July 2014 FOIA lawsuit filed after the U.S. Department of State failed to respond to a May 13, 2014 FOIA request.”

Bless Judicial Watch’s hearts for trying but our mostly corrupt justice system has transformed them into an historical research society. Two and a half years under Obama and another two years under Trump administration and we don’t have the evidence.

We really don’t have a constitutional republic anymore when elites can get away with the most heinous and treacherous crimes. Sure, we can go along ok for a couple of years maybe, but we have to face up to the fact that either the Leftists will take over and physically destroy their enemies or they will unleash some horrible event that will take the nation down if they can’t win.

[Jeff Chandler]

How many years delay do these people get from this point forward?

As many as they need to run out the clock.

[jazusamo]

Judicial Watch’s primary function is exposing corruption through FOIA and followup with lawsuits to get that information.

They also file amicus curiae briefs in support of suits they have an interest in.

In my view they’ve been pretty successful.

[jazusamo]

MAGA!

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[sten]

What about mishandling classified materials?

[shanover]

We all knew this BS when it happened. What could be the “national security” of not opening up ALL documents to Benghazi? F-Obama,F-Rice and F-Clinton!