The judge gave Judicial Watch until October 14 to submit written questions to Clinton and ordered her to respond within 30 days.
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Her campaign has been dogged by her use of an unauthorised private email system containing classified information during her tenure as Secretary of State.
But Clinton has had trouble explaining why she set up the private email server in the first place.
During dessert, Powell advised Clinton to use a personal email account while in office, as he had done, according to the passage from the book “Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton” provided to AP.
Last week, Judicial Watch released 44 previously undisclosed Clinton email exchanges that she failed to include among 30,000 private messages she turned over to the government past year.
State Department headquarters in D.C., left, and, right, Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to the reporters at United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, March 10, 2015.
The FBI documents have not been made available to the public, despite a request from Clinton’s presidential campaign that they be widely released. “The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did”.
On the Clinton decision, Sullivan determined that Judicial Watch has the right to ask Clinton more questions because she “has not answered questions relevant to the limited scope of discovery authorized in this case”. Clinton used an unsecured email server for all messages, classified or not, exposing national security secrets to any hacker who would care to look. Powell reportedly told Clinton that his use of personal email to communicate with his staff had been “transformative for the department”.
“But Clinton will not be forced to sit for questions under oath from the conservative group Judicial Watch, avoiding a media firestorm”.
While admitting Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling sensitive State Department material, FBI Director James Comey said last month she would not face criminal charges. Sullivan did allow the group to depose a former IT official at the State Department.
Judicial Watch said it was happy with the ruling.
“Judicial Watch is a right-wing organization that has been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s”, Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Clinton, said.
Judicial Watch wants to know whether Abedin’s employment status with the State Department and other outside groups connected to Clinton broke any rules.
It said they ought to have been handed over to the State Department.
Sullivan said Bentel testified to Congress that he was not aware of Clinton’s private email server before media accounts about it appeared in 2015, but that emails have emerged showing he could have been notified as early as 2009.
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The group, Judicial Watch, was hoping the judge would order Clinton’s testimony after filing a request for its Freedom of Information Act suit last month.
