U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled Tuesday, Feb. 23, that State Department officials and aides to Hillary Clinton should be included in the formal questioning of whether Clinton's private email system is a way to avoid violating open records policies. The issue lies behind the probing by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the former state secretary's email practices and the emails' classified contents.
Sullivan ruled that officials and aides should be questioned under oath regarding Clinton's private email issues, Reuters reported. Sullivan also demanded that the State Department and industry watchdog Judicial Watch must both agree on a plan for the depositions by April, court documents showed.
Clinton's use of private emails may have been a way to undermine open records law, Sullivan stated in his ruling, adding that there is at least "a reasonable suspicion" on the intent. The Washington D.C. judge said that he may order the department to have Clinton return all records in her private email server.
The judge scheduled a deadline of April 12 wherein all parties should litigate detailed investigative plan that would cover all the defenses laid out by Clinton and her aides for the use of private email servers, the Washington Post reported. Clinton already submitted roughly 30,000 emails from her private server to the State Department. However, she deleted thousands of emails of her staff that she considered non-work related.
Clinton, who leads in the Democratic nomination for the November U.S. presidential election, did not show any sign of concern over the allegations regarding the private email issues, the Daily Mail noted.
"I know there are are challengers about what the State Department did or did not do -- that will all be worked out. It's just not something that is going to have a lasting effect. And I am not at all worried about it," Clinton was cited as saying at a CNN town hall.
The Judicial Watch, which requested for this latest move regarding emails of Clinton's staff and aides, considered Sullivan's ruling another victory. The group asked the court that it should get sworn testimonies from a list of senior State Department officials and Clinton associates who knew about the private email server setup. The list could include Patrick Kennedy, the department's under secretary for management, and Cheryl Mills, Clinton's former chief of staff.
