In a stunning memo this week, Senior District Court Judge Royce Lamberth said he was not convinced that the State Department was working to produce emails from Hillary Clinton’s time in office with the kind of efficiency required by the law. Demanding that both the State Department and the Justice Department work closely with watchdog group Judicial Watch to uncover the truth about Clinton’s private server, Judge Lamberth said he was disturbed by the idea that the federal government had “colluded” with Clinton in an effort to keep her emails hidden from public view.
Judicial Watch issued a statement celebrating the ruling.
“The historic court ruling raises concerns about the Hillary Clinton email scandal and government corruption that millions of Americans share,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “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 and help, rather than obstruct, this court-ordered discovery.”
Judicial Watch published selections of Lamberth’s memo which show that the judge is deeply concerned about how seriously both the Obama and Trump administrations took the importance of transparency.
“The Court ORDERS the parties to meet and confer to plan discovery into (a) whether Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email while Secretary of State was an intentional attempt to evade FOIA; (b) whether the State Department’s attempts to settle this case in late 2014 and early 2015 amounted to bad faith; and (c) whether State has adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s requests,” he wrote.
Deeming the State Department and Justice Department’s efforts to provide transparency lackluster at best, Lamberth accused both agencies of falling well short of Obama’s announced standard for open government.
“So far short that the court questions, even now, whether they are acting in good faith,” he wrote. “Did Hillary Clinton use her private email as Secretary of State to thwart this lofty goal? 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?”
Save for aggressive efforts from Judicial Watch and other conservative groups, it seems that the entire issue of the Hillary Clinton email coverup would be lost to the sands of history. Not only must we therefore praise Judge Lamberth for seeing through this smokescreen, we have to tip our hats to Tom Fitton and patriots like him for keeping the government’s feet to the fire. God knows what our elected officials (and their un-elected Deep State protectors) would get away with if we didn’t have people willing to just keep digging.
