Turnaround! State Department supports reopening email case

In a stunning turnaround, even the State Department is supporting a request to reopen a court fight over emails belonging to Hillary Clinton and her aide, Huma Abedin, after allegations of fraud surfaced.

A court filing submitted to federal court in Washington by government watchdog Judicial Watch says one of its cases against the State Department needs to be reopened, even though it already was ended, because of fraud or misrepresentation on the government's part.

And the State Department agrees, the organization reported.

"Counsel for Judicial Watch conferred with counsel for defendant U.S. Department of State … who stated that the department 'does not oppose reopening the case in this particular circumstance, but does oppose the specific relief sought, and will be filing a response detailing its position.'"

At issue are thousands, maybe tens of thousands of emails on Hillary Clinton's private email system server that she set up for her own use while secretary of state.

"It … was reported that Secretary Clinton stored these records on an email server at her home in Chappaqua, New York, sometime in 2014 unilaterally determined which of these emails were official government records, and only returned approximately 55,000 pages of these records to the State Department in December 2014," Judicial Watch said.

Her aide, Abedin, also used the system, it said.

But Judicial Watch had submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for details about the communications of Clinton and Abedin that already had been closed, so the organization argues it now should be reopened.

"The March 2, 2015, report was the first time Judicial Watch learned that the department's responses to Judicial Watch may have been compromised. Because the FOIA request at issue in this litigation included communications of Secretary Clinton and Ms. Abedin, Judicial Watch seeks to reopen this litigation to remedy the department's failure to retain, records-manage, and search for these records."

While the case was open earlier, Judicial Watch said, it relied on government representations that it had searched record systems for responsive documents.

"It is now clear that Secretary Clinton's emails were not searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch's FOIA request. Secretary Clinton used at least one non-'state.gov' email address to conduct official State Department business," the filing said.

Judicial Watch's Motion for Relief and Request for Hearing was filed before U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington.

The target of that investigation was information about how Abedin was deputy chief of staff for operations then named a senior adviser in the same office and given the "special government employee" designation so she could take outside jobs while she was working for the government.

Judicial Watch said it was seeking to reopen the lawsuit under a federal court rule (Rule 60(b)(3)) that allows a party to reopen a case due to "fraud (whether previously called intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or misconduct by an opposing party."

The organization is arguing that it is "incomprehensible" that the State Department wasn't aware that it's "searches" did not include emails of Clinton.

It then "represented to Judicial Watch" that those records had been searched.

According to Judicial Watch, "At no point did the State Department inform Judicial Watch that the secretary's emails and the emails of Ms. Abedin and other high level officials could not be searched. These were misrepresentations."

"Hillary Clinton's misconduct and the resulting fraud by the State Department disrupted and ended our federal FOIA lawsuit about Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton's closest political associates," said Judicial Watch chief Tom Fitton. "Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration concealed records and lied to obstruct a federal court and Judicial Watch from finding out about the secret emails. Time is of the essence. Immediate court action is imperative to retrieve, recover and secure these public records from Mrs. Clinton."

The Abedin situation raised questions because Fox News reported that while she earned $135,000 from the government, she was being paid another $355,000 as a consultant to Teneo, a consulting company.

Judicial Watch said without having the case reopened, it would have to file another case to force the State Department to search the 55,000 pages of emails "it recently received from Secretary Clinton" to determine whether they are responsive to its FOIA request.

Judicial Watch said it has about 20 pending and dismissed lawsuits for records that may have been impacted by the Clinton email issue, and it is reviewing those other cases to determine what requests will be submitted to the courts.

Clinton recently took questions from media but didn't address some of the most significant questions about the email scandal.

Those included whether she cleared the process with State Department security officials, whether an independent arbiter would look at her server and to what lengths would she go to show she didn't delete emails.

WND also has reported that members of Congress already were preparing subpoenas regarding the email, and the founder of Freedom Watch, attorney Larry Klayman, said Clinton's actions are criminal.

"There is no crime beneath the Clintons, as history has shown. But this newest email scandal is not minor," said Klayman, who said he's preparing requests for contempt citations in his current lawsuits.

"It rises to the level of major criminality, as Hillary Clinton and her then State Department have again lied to courts and obstructed justice – as she did to independent counsels during her husband's administration," Klayman said.

He charged that in responding to the information requests, the Obama State Department at the direction of Hillary Clinton lied to several courts.

"Importantly, by Secretary Clinton's failing to produce the emails, but instead secretly hiding them by using private email accounts, she compromised national security by communicating on non-secured lines," Klayman said in a statement.