JUSTICE AFTER ALL? Federal Court Re-Opens Hillary Email Inquiry!

Here are more details, from the WashingtonPost:

A U.S. judge ordered the Justice and State departments Thursday to reopen an inquiry into whether Hillary Clinton used a private email server while secretary of state to deliberately evade public records laws and to answer whether the agencies acted in bad faith by not telling a court for months that they had asked in mid-2014 for missing emails to be returned.

The order risks reopening partisan wounds that have barely healed since Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid, but in issuing the order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act required it.

In a narrow but sharply worded 10-page opinion, Lamberth wrote that despite the government’s claimed presumption of transparency, “faced with one of the gravest modern offenses to government openness, [the Obama administration’s] State and Justice departments fell far short” of the law’s requirements in a lawsuit for documents.

Lamberth added that despite President Trump’s repeated campaign attacks against Clinton for not making her emails public, “the current Justice Department made things worse” by taking the position that agencies are not obliged to search for records not in the government’s possession when a FOIA request is made.

Lamberth wrote he took no pleasure in “questioning the intentions of the nation’s most august” Cabinet departments but said it was necessary when their response “smacks of outrageous misconduct.”

Conservative legal watchdog group Judicial Watch filed its FOIA lawsuit in July 2014 seeking State Department talking points issued after the September 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that left a U.S. ambassador dead.

The suit came months before news broke in March 2015 that Clinton exclusively used a private email account as secretary from 2009 to 2013.

Between July 2014 and March 2015, the State Department said in court filings that its document searches were adequate and did not mention unsearched records as it proposed to settle the case.

The agencies later acknowledged that additional searches would be needed, without disclosing that it had received 30,000 emails returned by Clinton.

At best, Lamberth said the government’s actions reflect “negligence born of incompetence,” adding, “At worst, career employees in the State and Justice departments colluded to scuttle public scrutiny of Clinton, skirt FOIA, and hoodwink this court.”

Lamberth said he had delayed ruling on the order until a similar 2016 case before another federal judge in the District had wound down.

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And from FoxNews:

A conservative group won a court victory this week when a federal judge ordered more fact-finding in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth assailed Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state as “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.”

Conservative group Judicial Watch had filed a Freedom of information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the State and Justice departments, alleging that Clinton’s email practices represented a deliberate effort to violate the FOIA, Politico reported.

On Friday, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton praised Lamberth’s ruling, telling Fox News it showed the court was “not terribly convinced” that former FBI Director James Comey adequately investigated Clinton’s use of the private server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Here's the full press release from Judicial Watch:

Court Excoriates Obama State Department/Justice Department for Possibly Acting in “Bad Faith” and Colluding “to Scuttle Public Scrutiny” of Clinton Private Email Server

Court Criticizes Current Justice Department for “Chicanery”

District Court Judge Lamberth Orders “Proposed Plan and Schedule  for Discovery Within Ten Days” 

Discovery Must Also Explore Whether Clinton Intentionally Used Private Email Server to “skirt FOIA”

 (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that, in a ruling excoriating both the U.S. Departments of State and Justice, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth has ordered both agencies to join Judicial Watch in submitting a proposed schedule for discovery into whether Hillary Clinton sought to evade the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by using a private email system and whether the State Department acted in “bad faith” by failing to disclose knowledge of the email system.  The decision comes in a FOIA lawsuit related to the Benghazi terrorist attack.

Specially, Lamberth ruled:

… the Court ORDERS the parties to meet and confer to plan discovery into (a) whether Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email while Secretary of State was an intentional attempt to evade FOIA; (b) whether the State Department’s attempts to settle this case in late 2014 and early 2015 amounted to bad faith; and (c) whether State has adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s requests.

Terming Clinton’s use of her private email system, “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency,” Lamberth wrote in his MEMORANDUM OPINION:

… his [President Barack Obama’s] State and Justice Departments fell far short. So far short that the court questions, even now, whether they are acting in good faith. Did Hillary Clinton use her private email as Secretary of State to thwart this lofty goal [Obama announced standard for transparency]? Was the State Department’s attempt to settle this FOIA case in 2014 an effort to avoid searching – and disclosing the existence of – Clinton’s missing emails? And has State ever adequately searched for records in this case?

***

At best, State’s attempt to pass-off its deficient search as legally adequate during settlement negotiations was negligence born out of incompetence. At worst, career employees in the State and Justice Departments colluded to scuttle public scrutiny of Clinton, skirt FOIA, and hoodwink this Court.

Turning his attention to the Department of Justice, Lamberth wrote:

The current Justice Department made things worse. When the government last appeared before the Court, counsel claimed, ‘it is not true to say we misled either Judicial Watch or the Court.’ When accused of ‘doublespeak,’ counsel denied vehemently, feigned offense, and averred complete candor. When asked why State masked the inadequacy of its initial search, counsel claimed that the officials who initially responded to Judicial Watch’s request didn’t realize Clinton’s emails were missing, and that it took them two months to ‘figure [] out what was going on’… Counsel’s responses strain credulity. [citations omitted]

The Court granted discovery because the government’s response to the Judicial Watch Benghazi FOIA request for Clinton emails “smacks of outrageous conduct.”

Citing an email (uncovered as a result of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit) that Hillary Clinton acknowledged that Benghazi was a terrorist attack immediately after it happened, Judge Lamberth asked:

Did State know Clinton deemed the Benghazi attack terrorism hours after it happened, contradicting the Obama Administration’s subsequent claim of a protest-gone-awry?

****

Did the Department merely fear what might be found? Or was State’s bungling just the unfortunate result of bureaucratic redtape and a failure to communicate? To preserve the Department’s integrity, and to reassure the American people their government remains committed to transparency and the rule of law, this suspicion cannot be allowed to fester.

“The historic court ruling raises concerns about the Hillary Clinton email scandal and government corruption that millions of Americans share,” stated Judicial Watch Tom Fitton.  “Judicial Watch looks forward to conducting careful discovery into the Clinton email issue and we hope the Justice Department and State Department recognize Judge Lamberth’s criticism and help, rather than obstruct, this court-ordered discovery.”

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