The case ultimately seeks to determine whether or not the State Department complied fully with Judicial Watch’s request for all relevant employment records of Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s longtime aides.
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In a separate development, another former secretary of state, Colin Powell, said he sent Mrs Clinton a memo about his use of a personal email account for work-related messages after she took over in 2009.
The FBI closed its investigation last month without recommending criminal charges, though it called her arrangement “extremely careless”. He said he used the State Department’s systems to handle classified information. However, while Powell used personal email, he did not have a server at his home or rely on outside contractors as Clinton did. Clinton’s private server was located in the basement of the NY home she shared with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Its host, Madeleine Albright, apparently asked her guests, who included Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell “to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat”.
The journalist Joe Conason first reported the conversation between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Powell in his coming book about Bill Clinton’s postpresidency, “Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton”, which The Times received an advanced copy of. The group sued the State Department for relevant documents.
According to Conason’s retelling, Clinton replied that she had already chose to continue using the private server in her home she had relied on during her 2008 presidential bid.
Powell’s office said he had no recollection of the dinner conversation.
Hillary Clinton told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that former Secretary of State Colin Powell advised her to use a private email account for unclassified communications at the State Department.
The judge, though, said Mrs. Clinton has spoken publicly and left such a broad record that Judicial Watch can anticipate follow-ups. The ruling means she will not sit in a formal deposition.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued the order August 19, as part of a long-running public records lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign said the new emails were evidence of Mrs Clinton being corrupt.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by the conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch, adding to Clinton’s struggles as she looks to put to rest the controversy surrounding her email server.
The group, Judicial Watch, had wanted Clinton to testify under oath as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit it is pursuing against the State Department.
Mrs Clinton must instead respond in writing within 30 days to questions submitted by Judicial Watch, a group that has always been critical of her conduct and which is suing the Department of State over Clinton-era records. “The decision is a reminder that Clinton is not above the law”, he said.
Sullivan ordered the State Department to turn over remaining emails responsive to Judicial Watch’s request by September 30. The group has until October 14 to submit the questions and Clinton must respond to them within 30 days.
Sullivan did allow the group to depose a former IT official at the State Department.
According to a scathing report by the State Department’s inspector general, Mr Bentel, then a technology official in Mrs Clinton’s office, told junior staffers to never speak of Mrs Clinton’s email server again after they raised concerns.
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An official non-classified email system was installed in 2009, the same year Clinton arrived. “Judicial Watch is a right-wing organization that has been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s”.
