Judicial Watch Seeks Public View of Clinton Email Depos

Judicial Watch (JW) is successful because our team is persistent and insistent in our anti-corruption work. Just last week, we filed a motion with a federal court to unseal the audiovisual recordings of the depositions of top Clinton aides and State Department officials.

The depositions come in connection with our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to former Secretary Clinton (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)).

Our legal team argues that, "even though the election is over, the news media and the public continue to monitor and follow the proceedings in this case."

A coalition of 19 news media organizations is already on record with the Court supporting public access to the videos.

The motion is opposed by the State Department, as well as Abedin, former State Department Director of Information Resource Management of the Executive Secretariat John Bentel (who took the Fifth Amendment in response to questions at his deposition); Cheryl D. Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff throughout her four years as secretary of state; and Bryan Pagliano, State Department Schedule C employee who has been reported to have serviced and maintained the server that hosted the "clintonemail.com" system. Pagliano also asserted his Fifth Amendment right in refusing to answer questions in his deposition in this case.

We respectfully remind the court of the following:

[T]he court has stated, "The public has a right to know details related to the creation, purpose and use of the clintonemail.com system."

Because the public has a right to know, the audiovisual recordings of the depositions in this case must be unsealed. The sole reason for sealing the recordings in the first place was to avoid their misuse during the 2016 campaign season. Now that the election is over that reason no longer exists.

For the full history of this case, click here.

The public and the media have a right to see these deposition videos. The courts and the continued work of Judicial Watch remains the best hope of bringing sunlight into the Clinton email issue and completing the public record.

Tom Fitton is the president of Judicial Watch. He is a nationally recognized expert on government corruption. A former talk radio and television host and analyst, Tom is well known across the country as a national spokesperson for the conservative cause. He has been quoted in Time, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and most every other major newspaper in the country. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.