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Judge Orders FBI to Release Unredacted Subpoenas From Clinton Investigation

'Americans deserve to know the full scope of that investigation'

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Getty Images
September 1, 2017

A federal judge has ordered the FBI to release new details regarding the subpoenas the bureau issued during the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.

On Thursday, James Boasberg, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled in favor of watchdog groups Cause of Action and Judicial Watch, which are suing the government for failing to properly preserve the former secretary of state and failed presidential candidate's emails.

"The 2016 presidential election may have come and gone, but Plaintiffs Judicial Watch and Cause of Action Institute's quest for Hillary Clinton's emails lives on," Boasberg wrote in the order. "As most readers will remember, Clinton used private email accounts during her tenure as Secretary of State, embroiling the government in myriad Freedom of Information Act suits."

"In this case, however, Plaintiffs have taken a different tack, alleging a violation of the Federal Records Act," he wrote. "That is, they claim Defendants State Department and the National Archives and Records Administration failed to maintain records of Clinton’s emails and must now seek the Department of Justice's Case assistance in their recovery."

The groups sued the State Department and the National Archives for the unredacted grand jury subpoenas issued in the Clinton email investigation last month.

The existence of the subpoenas was revealed earlier this year, in a redacted declaration filed to the court in secret by E.W. Priestap, the assistant director for the FBI's counterintelligence division.

Boasberg has now ordered the FBI to reveal the full, unredacted Priestap declaration, which will reveal more information on the government's efforts to obtain emails stored on Clinton's BlackBerry email accounts.

Cause of Action Institute president and CEO John J. Vecchione praised the court's opinion: "The government attempted to end a case with evidence no one could review. This order makes public details submitted by the government about the FBI's efforts to recover then-Secretary Clinton's unlawfully removed emails."

"Americans deserve to know the full scope of that investigation, and we, as Plaintiffs, should have an opportunity to contest the relevance of the government’s facts," Vecchione said.

Cause of Action and Judicial Watch are still seeking thousands of Clinton's emails, but the order Thursday is a first step in revealing more information into how the FBI's case was handled.

The lawsuit led to the discovery of additional classified emails by Clinton that were never disclosed by the State Department, in March.

Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti filed a declaration in support of the groups' motion to reveal the unredacted subpoenas because of the "significant public interest" regarding the Clinton email investigation and its implications for national security.

Published under: FBI , Hillary Clinton