Outraged Federal Judge Orders Further Investigation into Hillary's Email Server
The 2016 election may be fading fast in the rearview mirror of history, but one of its biggest scandals is still haunting Hillary Clinton.
Over two years after Clinton lost in a major upset to now-President Trump, a lawsuit focused on her misuse of a private email system is moving forward. This week, a federal judge sided against the disgraced former first lady, and ordered a deeper investigation into her recklessness with the unsecured server.
“The ruling revolves around a Freedom of Information Act suit brought by a conservative government watchdog,” reported The Daily Wire.
“Judicial Watch, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Thursday, should be given access to documents and be permitted to acquire additional testimony about Clinton’s use of a private server and officials’ failure to be transparent about information searches related to it,” Daily Wire continued.
In an official opinion written by Judge Lamberth, the magistrate slammed Clinton’s email scandal as “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.”
The court also used Clinton’s own party against her. Quoting none other than Barack Obama, under whom Clinton served as secretary of state when the dangerously insecure email server was setup, Lamberth highlighted the importance of transparency.
“In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through transparency, is the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open government,” Obama declared early in his presidency.
“All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA,” the 44th president continued.
Unfortunately, that pledge of government transparency seemed to be quickly forgotten within the Obama administration. Judge Lamberth pointed out that there’s strong evidence that Clinton used her private server to hide her activities and avoid oversight.
“But in this case, faced with one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency, his State and Justice Departments fell far short,” he declared.
“So far short that the Court questions, even now, whether they are acting in good faith. Did Hillary Clinton use her private email as Secretary of State to thwart this lofty goal?” Judge Lamberth continued, strongly implying that the answer was a resounding “no.”
“Was the State Department’s attempt to settle this FOIA case in 2014 an effort to avoid searching–and disclosing the existence of–Clinton’s missing emails? And has State ever adequately searched for records in this case?” he also posed.
He was referencing a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Judicial Watch regarding Benghazi four years ago, which under transparency laws should have been granted. Instead, in the opinion of the judge, Clinton and her people knowingly hid behind the unauthorized server to avoid facing the music.
“At best, State’s attempts to pass-off its deficient search as legally adequate during settlement negotiations was negligence born out of incompetence,” Judge Lamberth scolded.
“At worst, career employees in the State and Justice Departments colluded to scuttle public scrutiny of Clinton, skirt FOIA and hoodwink this court,” he stated.
Incompetence, negligence, collusion, skirting and hoodwinking: Yes, it definitely sounds like the modus operandi of the Clintons.
Luckily, Judicial Watch isn’t letting the issue go as easily as James Comey and the Justice Department did.
“The historic court ruling raises concerns about the Hillary Clinton email scandal and government corruption that millions of Americans share,” said Tom Fitton, the head of the watchdog group.
“Judicial Watch looks forward to conducting careful discovery into the Clinton email issue and we hope the Justice Department and State Department recognize Judge Lamberth’s criticism,” he stated.
Whether he and his group are able to get anywhere remains to be seen, but it is promising that corruption within Washington is not being ignored.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
