A federal judge has ordered the U.S. State Department to release any emails it discovers between the White House and Hillary Clinton from the week of the Benghazi, Libya attack in 2012. The State Department must release these emails along with thousands of additional emails that have been uncovered by September 13.
The judge’s order came after the FBI handed over 14,900 of Clinton’s emails and other documents it recovered. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, failed to turn over the documents and messages to the government.
U.S. District Court Judge William Dimitrouleas gave the order as part of a request from Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog that is suing the State Department for records from Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
The judge’s order ensures that at least some of Clinton’s recovered emails will be released before the November election.
Clinton has faced criticism for using a private email server in the basement of her home while she served as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. The FBI confiscated her server in 2015 after discovering that she had sent and received classified information through the system, which is prohibited.
The Democratic nominee claims that she was unaware the information was classified at the time.
The FBI conducted a year-long investigation into Clinton’s email, after which FBI Director James Comey called her “extremely careless,” but stated there was no grounds for prosecution. The decision has been harshly criticized by Republicans.
