Can Hillary Clinton slide out of trouble one more time? We're about to find out.
A federal judge rules against Hillary Clinton and this one is trouble for her.
During a Thursday ruling Judge Royce Lamberth tore into Clintonwhen he granted Judicial Watch their Freedom of Information Act request against the State Department.
“At best, State’s efforts to pass off its deficient search as legally adequate during settlement negotiations was negligence born out of incompetence,” Lamberth said.
“At worst, career employees at the State and Justice departments colluded to scuttle public scrutiny of Clinton, skirt FOIA, and hoodwink this court,” the judge said in a brutal ruling, per The Hill.
In his ruling, Lamberth ordered the agencies to develop a plan with Judicial Watch for a discovery plan within 10 days that will determine whether Clinton used the server to evade FOIA requests. He also ruled that the plan should determine whether the State Department sought to settle the case with Judicial Watch “despite knowing the inadequacies of the initial search constituted bad faith.”
President Trump and Republicans have blasted Clinton’s use of a private server to send and receive emails pertaining to her government work. An FBI probe into her use of the server ended with no charges filed.
Judicial Watch alleges that Clinton used the server to avoid public scrutiny of her work.
Judge Lamberth also ordered more fact finding in the case of the email server, Politico reported.
Lamberth, who has clashed with Clinton and her aides in cases dating back to her husband’s administration, was unsparing in his assessment of the former secretary’s actions. He blasted Clinton’s email practices as “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.”
Lamberth also again expressed concerns that lawyers at the Justice Department and the State Department misled the court when they tried at the end of 2014 to wrap up Judicial Watch’s FOIA suit about Benghazi talking points even though some officials were aware months earlier that Clinton had tens of thousands of emails on a private system and had agreed to turn many of them over to State at its request.
“State played this card close to its chest,” the judge complained. “At best, State’s attempts to pass-off its deficient search as legally adequate during settlement negotiations was negligence born out of incompetence. At worst, career employees in the State and Justice Departments colluded to scuttle public scrutiny of Clinton, skirt FOIA and hoodwink this court.”
“Judge Royce Lamberth assailed Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state as ‘one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.’” #CrookedHillary https://t.co/TGGlquUw2N
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1071110437570314246
https://twitter.com/RebekahWorsham/status/1071030988581625858
Wow. It’s really happening. Thank you Tom Fitton and Judicial Watch!
Federal Judge Orders DOJ To Reopen Hillary Clinton Email Case https://t.co/26ZMB7DbDZ
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) December 7, 2018
Perpetually amazed at the number of journalists who still fail to comprehend that Hillary Clinton‘s email usage was:
1. Illegal
2. Dangerous
3. A criminal investigation
4. Extremely damaging to the American public’s trust in her - based on the number of times she lied about it https://t.co/v44wFQ7Ylm— Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 6, 2018
