Even as its awaits a court ruling on its request to depose Hillary Clinton about her email and Benghazi scandals, government-watchdog Judicial Watch says evidence has been uncovered warranting the reopening of investigations of Barack Obama's first secretary of state.
Judicial Watch said Monday it obtained a copy of an email at the time of the Benghazi terror attack, when Obama administration officials were blaming it on reaction to anti-Islam YouTube video.
Judicial Watch said the information "had been covered up for years and would have exposed Hillary Clinton's email account if they had been released when the State Department first uncovered them in 2014."
"The long withheld email, clearly responsive to Judicial Watch's lawsuit seeking records concerning 'talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack,' contains Clinton's private email address and a conversation about the YouTube video that sparked the Benghazi talking points scandal," Judicial Watch said.
"This Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit led directly to the disclosure of the Clinton email system in 2015."
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the email "is a twofer – it shows Hillary Clinton misled the U.S. Senate on Benghazi and that the State Department wanted to hide the Benghazi connection to the Clinton email scheme."
"Rather than defending her email misconduct, the Justice Department has more than enough evidence to reopen its investigations into Hillary Clinton," Fitton said.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered production of the record, granting Judicial Watch significant new discovery in the case.
"There is no FOIA exemption for political expedience, nor is there one for bureaucratic incompetence," the judge noted at the time.
He also said the government has handled the case and the discovery of information so poorly that Judicial Watch may have the ability to prove the government acted in "bad faith."
The court is considering whether to allow Judicial Watch to question Hillary Clinton and her top aide in person under oath about the email and Benghazi controversies.
Judicial Watch said the Clinton "email cover-up led to court-ordered discovery into three specific areas: whether Secretary Clinton's use of a private email server was intended to stymie FOIA; whether the State Department’s intent to settle this case in late 2014 and early 2015 amounted to bad faith; and whether the State Department has adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s request. The court also authorized discovery into whether the Benghazi controversy motivated the cover-up of Clinton’s email. (The court ruled that the Clinton email system was 'one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.')"
Judicial Watch over the last several months uncovered more information about the scope of the Clinton email scandal and cover-up.
The September 2012 email chain begins with an email to Clinton at her private email address, "[email protected]," from Jacob Sullivan, Clinton's then-senior advisor and deputy chief of staff. The email was copied to Cheryl Mills, Clinton's then-chief of staff, and then was forwarded to then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Strategic Communications and Clinton advisor Phillipe Reines.
When Muslim militants attacked and killed four Americans stationed at the embassy in Benghazi, Obama administration officials immediately said it was a spontaneous uprising that turned violent, not an organized terror attack as it appeared to be.
In recent weeks, Judicial said, it has talked with:
- John Hackett, former Director of Information Programs and Services (IPS) testified under oath that he had raised concerns that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staff may have “culled out 30,000” of the secretary’s “personal” emails without following strict National Archives standards. He also revealed that he believed there was interference with the formal FOIA review process related to the classification of Clinton’s Benghazi-related emails.
- Heather Samuelson, Clinton’s White House liaison at the State Department, and later Clinton’s personal lawyer, admitted under oath that she was granted immunity by the Department of Justice in June 2016.
- Justin Cooper, former aide to President Bill Clinton and Clinton Foundation employee who registered the domain name of the unsecure clintonemail.com server that Clinton used while serving as Secretary of State, testified he worked with Huma Abedin, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, to create the non-government email system.
- In the interrogatory responses of E.W. (Bill) Priestap, assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division, he stated that the agency found Clinton email records in the Obama White House, specifically, the Executive Office of the President.
- Jacob “Jake” Sullivan, Clinton’s senior advisor and deputy chief of staff when she was secretary of state, testified that both he and Clinton used her unsecure non-government email system to conduct official State Department business.
- Eric Boswell, former assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, testified that Clinton was warned twice against using unsecure BlackBerry’s and personal emails to transmit classified material.Months earlier in the case, WND reported a federal court had ordered the State Department to search government records and email annouts for details about that Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attacked.
Washington, D.C., District Court Judge Amit Mehta has ordered the State Department to search government email accounts belonging to Clinton former deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, former chief of staff Cheryl Mills and former director of policy planning Jake Sullivan.
As WND reported, Clinton was secretary of state as Islamic militants attacked the U.S. special mission in Benghazi, Libya, and murdered U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management officer Sean Smith. Two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were also killed.
In the months leading up to the attack, Hillary’s State Department cut security in Libya. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., accused Hillary of "dereliction of duty" that led to the deaths of the four Americans.
"The State Department not only failed to honor repeated requests for additional security, but instead actually reduced security in Libya," Johnson wrote in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Although no one can say with certainty, I firmly believe a relatively small contingent of armed military guards would have prevented the attack, and those four lives would not have been lost."