The Judicial Watch ® APRIL 2019 VOLUME 25 / ISSUE 4 VerdictA News Publication from Judicial Watch A News PublicationWWW.JUDICIALWATCH.ORG from Judicial Watch Court Orders Discovery On Clinton Email, Top Officials To Respond To JW Questions Judicial Watch announced that United States District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that discovery can begin in Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. Obama administration senior State Department officials, lawyers and Clinton aides will now be deposed under oath. Senior officials — including Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Jacob Sullivan and FBI official E.W. Priestap — will now have to answer Judicial Watch’s written questions under oath. The court rejected the Justice Department’s and State Department’s objections to Judicial Watch’s court-ordered discovery plan. (The court, in ordering a discovery plan last month, ruled that the Clinton email system was “one of the gravest AP PHOTO/SUSAN WALSH modern offenses to government transparency.”) Judicial Watch’s discovery seeks answers to: Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice See DISCOVERY on page 2 3 JW Sues For FBI Communications Message from With Anti-Trump Dossier Group the President 9 Seeks records of communication of six key Court Report figures tied to Trump dossier Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Depart- ment of Justice on January 25, 2019 for all records of communication from January 2016 to January 2018 between former FBI General Counsel James Baker and Bill Clinton anti-Trump dossier author Christopher Steele. 13 Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Corruption Court for the District of Columbia, seeking to compel Chronicles the FBI to comply with a January 5, 2018 FOIA re- quest (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 17 1:19-cv-00177)). The lawsuit seeks: Government Uncovered “Any and all records of communication, including but not limited to emails, text messages and instant 19 In the Media See FBI on page 8 Former FBI General Counsel James Baker Cover Story Discovery From page 1 www l “Whether Clinton intentionally In ordering a discovery plan, attempted to evade the Freedom the court ruled that the Judicial Watch is a conservative, of Information Act (FOIA) by non-partisan American educational using a non-government email Clinton email system was foundation that promotes transparency, system; “one of the gravest modern accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law. offenses to government Judicial Watch advocates high standards l “whether the State Department’s transparency.” of ethics and morality in America’s efforts to settle this case begin- public life and seeks to ensure that ning in late 2014 amounted to www public officials do not abuse the powers entrusted to them by the American people. bad faith; and Judicial Watch Board of Directors Chris Farrell, Tom Fitton, Paul Orfanedes l “whether the State Department Justice Department objections to Editor adequately searched for records discovery on the infamous Benghazi Carter Clews responsive to Judicial Watch’s talking points, Judge Lamberth reit- Editorial Assistant FOIA request.” erated: Janice Rurup Senior Writer Discovery is scheduled to be com- “Yet Rice’s talking points and Dr. Larry Hunter pleted in May. The court will hold a State’s understanding of the attack Circulation Director post-discovery hearing to determine play an unavoidably central role John Albertella if Judicial Watch may also depose ad- in this case: information about the Direct Response Marketing Manager ditional witnesses, including Clinton points’ development and content, Ariana Azizkeya and her former chief of staff, Cheryl as well as their discussion and Graphic Design Consultant Mills. dissemination before and after Jeanne Minnix Judge Lamberth ordered written Rice’s appearances could reveal Production and Traffic Manager Tim Wathen responses under oath to Judicial unsearched, relevant records; Public Affairs Director Watch’s questions from Obama ad- State’s role in the points’ content Jill Farrell ministration senior officials Rice, and development could shed light Member Services Rhodes and Sullivan and former FBI on Clinton’s motives for shielding 1 (888) 593-8442 official Priestap. Rice and Rhodes her emails from FOIA requesters Fax (202) 646-5199 were ordered to answer interroga- or on State’s reluctance to search Social Media tories under oath on the Benghazi her emails.” www.JudicialWatch.org scandal. Rejecting the State and www.facebook.com/JudicialWatch Judicial Watch also may serve www.twitter.com/JudicialWatch interrogatories on Monica Hanley, Send your comments a former staff member in the State and questions to Editor, The Judicial Watch Verdict® Department’s Office of the Secretary, c/o [email protected] and on Lauren Jiloty, Clinton’s for- Annual suggested donation is $35. mer special assistant. Requests should be sent to: According to Lamberth’s order, The Judicial Watch Verdict® regarding whether Clinton’s private Judicial Watch email use while secretary of state 425 Third Street, SW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20024 was an intentional attempt to evade FOIA, Judicial Watch may depose: The Judicial Watch Verdict® is published monthly and distributed to its members, supporters and interested parties by 1. “Eric Boswell, the former As- Judicial Watch, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit sistant Secretary for Diplomatic organization incorporated in 1994 Security.… Boswell’s March 2009 in the District of Columbia. memo to Mills … discusses se- Copyright 2019 by Judicial Watch © All rights reserved. curity risks Clinton’s Blackberry Editorial content may be duplicated with use posed more generally. And, attribution and without permission. Boswell personally discussed the AP PHOTO/SUSAN WALSH April 2019 l Vol. 25 l Issue 4 Former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills See DISCOVERY on page 4 2 The Verdict l APRIL 2019 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Docs Reveal FBI Cover-Up Of ‘Chart’ Of Potential Violations Of Law By Hillary Clinton By Tom Fitton ton to the FBI to begin processing www 13,000 pages of records exchanged Judicial Watch caught the exclusively between Strzok and FBI in another cover-up to Page between February 1, 2015 and December 2017. The FBI may not protect Hillary Clinton. complete review and production of all the Strzok-Page communications www until at least 2020. JUDICIAL WATCH Three days after then-FBI Director James Comey’s press conference an- friendly terms…” Judicial Watch received 186 pages nouncing that he would not recom- Strzok forwards to Page, Jonathan of records from the Department of mend a prosecution of Mrs. Clinton, Moffa and others: Justice that include emails docu- a July 8, 2016 email chain shows that menting an evident cover-up of a the Special Counsel to the FBI’s ex- “I have redlined some points. chart of potential violations of law ecutive assistant director in charge of Broadly, I have some concerns by former Secretary of State Hillary the National Security Branch, whose about asking some our [sic] Clinton. name is redacted, wrote to Strzok senior field folks to get into the We obtained the records through and others that he was producing business of briefing this case, a January 2018 Freedom of Infor- a “chart of the statutory violations particularly when we have the mation Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed considered during the investigation D’s [Comey’s] statement as a kind after the Justice Department failed [of Clinton’s server], and the rea- of stand-alone document. In my respond to a December 4, 2017 sons for the recommendation not to opinion, there’s too much nuance, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. prosecute…” detail, and potential for missteps. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv- [Name redacted] writes: “I am But I get they may likely be asked 00154)) seeking all communications still working on an additional page for comment.” between FBI official Peter Strzok and for these TPs that consist of a chart FBI attorney Lisa Page. of the statutory violations considered [Name redacted] writes to Strzok, The newly obtained emails came during the investigation, and the rea- Page and others: in response to a May 21 order by sons for the recommendation not to U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Wal- prosecute, hopefully in non-lawyer “The DD [Andrew McCabe] will need to approve these before they are pushed out to anyone. At the end of last week, he wasn’t inclined to send them to anyone. But, it’s great to have them on the shelf in case they’re needed.” [Name redacted] writes to Strzok and Page: “I’m really not sure why they con- tinued working on these [talking points]. In the morning, I’ll make sure Andy [McCabe] tells Mike [Kortan] to keep these in his pock- et. I guess Andy just didn’t ever have a moment to turn these off AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE with Mike like he said he would.” Fired FBI Director James Comey See MESSAGE on page 5 www.JudicialWatch.org 3 Cover Story Discovery From page 2 memo with Clinton. So, he plain- ly has relevant information about that conversation and about his general knowledge of Clinton’s email use. Judicial Watch may depose Boswell. 2. “Justin Cooper, the Clinton Foundation employee who creat- ed the clintonemail.com server. In its proposal, Judicial Watch noted Cooper’s prior congressio- nal testimony ‘appears to con- tradict portions of the testimony provided by Huma Abedin in WIKIPEDIA the case before Judge Sullivan.’ U.S. Department of State headquarters, Washington, D.C. … Cooper repeatedly told Con- testimony and ask follow-up ment does not oppose Sullivan’s gress that Abedin helped set up questions is critical. deposition.” the Clintons’ private server, e.g., *** Examining Preservation of State “Judicial Watch seeks to go be- Regarding whether the State De- Department Federal Records: yond cursory, second-hand tes- partment’s settlement attempts that [before a Congressional hearing] timony and directly ask Finney began in late 2014 amounted to “bad Abedin testified under oath she what he knew about Clinton’s faith,” Judicial Watch was granted did not know about the server email use.