Transcript of Stephen D. Mull Date: June 3, 2016 Case: Judicial Watch, Inc. -v- U.S. Department of State Planet Depos, LLC Phone: 888-433-3767 Fax: 888-503-3767 Email: [email protected] Internet: www.planetdepos.com Worldwide Court Reporting | Interpretation | Trial Services 1 1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x 4 JUDICIAL WATCH, INC., : 5 Plaintiff, : 6 v. : Civil Action No. 7 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, : 13-cv-1363(EGS) 8 Defendant. : 9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X 10 11 Videotaped Deposition of STEPHEN D. MULL 12 Washington, DC 13 Friday, June 3, 2016 14 10:05 a.m. 15 16 17 18 19 20 Job No.: 111881 21 Pages 1 - 140 22 Reported by: Debra A. Whitehead Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 2 1 Videotaped Deposition of STEPHEN D. MULL, held at 2 the offices of: 3 4 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 5 20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW 6 Washington, DC 20035 7 (202) 514-3319 8 9 10 11 Pursuant to notice, before Debra A. Whitehead, an 12 Approved Reporter of the United States District Court 13 and Notary Public of the District of Columbia. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PLANET DEPOS 888.433.3767 | WWW.PLANETDEPOS.COM Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 3 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 ON BEHALF OF PLAINTIFF: 3 MICHAEL BEKESHA, ESQUIRE 4 RAMONA COTCA, ESQUIRE 5 JAMES F. PETERSON, ESQUIRE 6 PAUL J. ORFANEDES, ESQUIRE 7 JUDICIAL WATCH, INC. 8 425 Third Street, SW 9 Suite 800 10 Washington, DC 20024 11 (202) 646-5172 12 13 ON BEHALF OF DEFENDANT: 14 STEVEN A. MYERS, ESQUIRE 15 ELIZABETH SHAPIRO, ESQUIRE 16 MARCIA BERMAN, ESQUIRE 17 LARA NICOLE BERLIN, ESQUIRE 18 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 19 CIVIL DIVISION 20 20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW 21 Washington, DC 20530 22 (202) 514-2205 PLANET DEPOS 888.433.3767 | WWW.PLANETDEPOS.COM Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 4 1 A P P E A R A N C E S C O N T I N U E D 2 ALSO PRESENT: 3 MELISSA CALL, Department of Justice 4 DEREK FOX, Video Specialist 5 THOMAS J. FITTON, President, Judicial Watch 6 GREGORY LAUDADIO, Judicial Watch 7 CAROLINE WOLVERTON, Department of Justice 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PLANET DEPOS 888.433.3767 | WWW.PLANETDEPOS.COM Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 5 1 C O N T E N T S 2 EXAMINATION OF STEPHEN D. MULL PAGE 3 By Mr. Bekesha 9 4 5 E X H I B I T S 6 (Attached to the Transcript) 7 DEPOSITION EXHIBIT PAGE 8 Exhibit 1 E-mail String 44 9 Exhibit 2 E-mail String 46 10 Exhibit 3 1/28/11 E-mail from Mr. Crowley 51 11 to Ms. Mills, et al. 12 Exhibit 4 E-mail String 51 13 Exhibit 5 E-mail String 61 14 Exhibit 6 E-mail String 64 15 Exhibit 7 January 2016 Evaluation of the 88 16 Department of State's FOIA 17 Processes for Requests Involving 18 the Office of the Secretary 19 Exhibit 8 May 2016 Office of the Secretary: 99 20 Evaluation of Email Records 21 Management and Cybersecurity 22 Requirements PLANET DEPOS 888.433.3767 | WWW.PLANETDEPOS.COM Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 6 1 E X H I B I T S C O N T I N U E D 2 DEPOSITION EXHIBIT PAGE 3 Exhibit 9 1996 Secretarial Transition 122 4 Background Materials, Office of 5 the Secretary Administrative 6 Support, Procedures, and Staffing, 7 November 1996 8 Exhibit 9A No. 96-009 S/S-EX - Administrative 131 9 Procedure, Subject: Records 10 Management 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PLANET DEPOS 888.433.3767 | WWW.PLANETDEPOS.COM Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 7 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 10:04:49 2 VIDEO SPECIALIST: Here begins Tape Number 10:04:49 3 1 in the videotaped deposition of Stephen D. Mull in 10:04:57 4 the matter of Judicial Watch, Inc., versus U.S. 10:05:03 5 Department of State, in the United States District 10:05:07 6 Court for the District of Columbia; Civil Action 10:05:10 7 Number 13-CV-1363. 10:05:14 8 Today's date is June 3rd, 2016. The time 10:05:21 9 on the video monitor is 10:05. The videographer 10:05:25 10 today is Derek Fox, representing Planet Depos. 10:05:30 11 This video deposition is taking place at 10:05:35 12 20 Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest, Washington, DC. 10:05:39 13 Would counsel please voice-identify 10:05:44 14 themselves and state whom they represent. 10:05:46 15 MR. BEKESHA: Michael Bekesha, on behalf 10:05:49 16 of Judicial Watch. 10:05:50 17 MR. ORFANEDES: Paul Orfanedes, on behalf 10:05:50 18 of Judicial Watch. 10:05:50 19 MS. COTCA: Ramona Cotca, on behalf of 10:05:53 20 Judicial Watch. 10:05:53 21 MR. PETERSON: James Peterson, on behalf 10:05:53 22 of Judicial Watch. 10:05:53 PLANET DEPOS 888.433.3767 | WWW.PLANETDEPOS.COM Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 8 1 MS. SHAPIRO: Elizabeth Shapiro, on behalf 10:05:53 2 of the Department of State. 10:06:01 3 MS. WOLVERTON: Caroline Wolverton, on 10:06:01 4 behalf of the Department of State. 10:06:05 5 MS. BERLIN: Lara Berlin, Department of 10:06:06 6 State. 10:06:07 7 MS. BERMAN: Marcy Berman, Department of 10:06:09 8 State. 10:06:11 9 MR. MYERS: Steven Myers, for the 10:06:11 10 Department of State. 10:06:12 11 MR. FITTON: Tom Fitton, President of 10:06:17 12 Judicial Watch. 10:06:17 13 MR. LAUDADIO: Gregory Laudadio, Judicial 10:06:21 14 Watch. 10:06:24 15 VIDEO SPECIALIST: The court reporter 10:06:25 16 today is Debbie Whitehead, representing Planet 10:06:25 17 Depos. 10:06:25 18 Would the reporter please swear in the 10:06:25 19 witness. 10:06:25 20 STEPHEN D. MULL, 10:06:25 21 having been duly sworn, testified as follows: 10:06:36 22 MR. MYERS: And Ambassador Mull reserves 10:06:36 PLANET DEPOS 888.433.3767 | WWW.PLANETDEPOS.COM Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 9 1 the right to read and sign at the end of the 10:06:38 2 deposition. 10:06:40 3 EXAMINATION BY COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF 10:06:43 4 BY MR. BEKESHA: 10:06:43 5 Q Good morning, Mr. Mull. My name is 10:06:43 6 Michael Bekesha. I'm an attorney with Judicial 10:06:45 7 Watch. I'm here to ask you a few questions about 10:06:48 8 one of Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act 10:06:51 9 lawsuits against the Department of State, 10:06:54 10 specifically questions surrounding the creation, 10:06:56 11 purpose, and use of the Clintonemail.com system by 10:06:59 12 then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Huma 10:06:59 13 Abedin, to conduct official government business. 10:07:02 14 Before we begin, could you please state 10:07:05 15 and spell your name, for the record. 10:07:07 16 A Sure. It is Stephen, S-T-E-P-H-E-N, Mull, 10:07:09 17 M-U-L-L. 10:07:13 18 Q Thank you. Also, before we begin, I would 10:07:15 19 like to go over a few ground rules. Your counsel 10:07:17 20 may have already talked to you about them, but it 10:07:19 21 will hopefully help the deposition go more smoothly. 10:07:21 22 If you don't hear one of my questions or 10:07:24 PLANET DEPOS 888.433.3767 | WWW.PLANETDEPOS.COM Videotaped Deposition of Stephen D. Mull Conducted on June 3, 2016 10 1 don't understand one of my questions, please let me 10:07:26 2 know. Happy to repeat the question or rephrase the 10:07:29 3 question. 10:07:31 4 Also, it's important that you respond out 10:07:32 5 loud. If you shake your hand -- head or make any 10:07:34 6 hand gestures, the court reporter can't record that. 10:07:37 7 Also, things will go a lot more smoothly 10:07:40 8 if you wait until I'm done answering the questions 10:07:43 9 or your counsel is done objecting. It's a lot 10:07:45 10 easier for the court reporter to record if we're not 10:07:47 11 speaking over each other. 10:07:50 12 With that, could you just give me a brief 10:07:52 13 background about your tenure at the State 10:07:55 14 Department? 10:07:57 15 A Yes. I'm a Foreign Service Officer since 10:07:57 16 1982. I have served a variety of overseas posts and 10:08:00 17 domestic assignments.