Government watchdog Judicial Watch, whose Freedom of Information Act lawsuit during the Obama administration uncovered the scandal over Hillary Clinton transmitting classified information through an unauthorized email, has announced a series of depositions for government officials involved.
The organization announced Wednesday its schedule for the depositions, which were ordered in January by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth.
Some of the prominent names are Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Jacob Sullivan and E.W. Priestap, an FBI official.
After the discovery of the unsecured email system, Clinton deleted thousands of emails she deemed to be of a personal nature. And thousands of Clinton emails were discovered on a laptop owned by Congressman Anthony Wiener, the husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Judicial Watch revealed Wednesday it now is seeking information about “whether Clinton intentionally attempted to evade the Freedom of Information Act by using a non-government email system.”
Judicial Watch also wants to know “whether the State Department’s efforts to settle this case beginning in late 2014 amounted to bad faith” and “whether the State Department adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request.”
The depositions begin Thursday with Justin Cooper, a “former aide to Bill Clinton who reportedly had no security clearance and is believed to have played a key role in setting up Hillary Clinton’s non-government email system.”
John Hackett, described by Judicial Watch as a State Department records official who was immediately responsible for responding to requests for record, will be questioned April 5.
On April 16, former Hillary Clinton senior adviser and deputy chief of staff Jacob “Jake” Sullivan will be deposed. On April 23, it will be Sheryl Walter, former State Department director of the Office of Information Programs and Services/Global Information Services, sitting for questions.
“Judicial Watch is doing the heavy lifting on the ongoing Clinton email scandal, even as Congress dropped the ball and DOJ and State continued to obstruct our quest for the truth,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The court in our case wants real answers on the Clinton email scandal which is why our request for basic discovery was granted.”
Gene Smilansky and Monica Tillery, both of the State Department, will be questioned later in April. On May 7, it will be Jonathon Wasser, who was a management analyst on the executive secretariat staff.
The deposition for Heather Samuelson, former State Department senior adviser who helped facilitate the State Department’s receipt and release of Hillary Clinton’s emails, is in June.
Judicial Watch said written questions under oath are to be provided by Monica Hanley, Hillary Clinton’s former confidential assistant; Lauren Jiloty, Clinton’s former special assistant; Priestap of the FBI’s counterintelligence division; and Susan Rice, Obama’s former U.N. ambassador, who appeared on Sunday television news shows following the Benghazi attacks, blaming a “hateful video.”
Questions also will be posed to Ben Rhodes, an Obama-era White House deputy strategic communications adviser who attempted to orchestrate a campaign to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video.”
In January, WND reported the July 2014 lawsuit was filed after the State Department refused to respond to FOIA requests for information about talking points given to Rice by the White House and other agencies regarding the 2012 Benghazi attack.
Fitton said President Trump should demand to know why the State and Justice Department are colluding with Clinton allies and trying to protect Hillary Clinton and themselves from court-ordered questions on the Clinton email scandal.
The judge in the case has called Clinton’s private email system “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.”
When Clinton left the State Department, she had her lawyers decide what needed to be turned over to the government. Ultimately, tens of thousands of emails were concealed from the public.
An FBI investigation found she had classified material on the unsecure system.
