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Judicial Watch Sues for Clinton Damage Assessment Report

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March 22, 2017

Judicial Watch, a D.C-based government watchdog group, is suing the Office of National Intelligence and the Department of State in hopes of forcing a report be conducted on whether Hillary Clinton's private email practices damaged national security during her tenure as secretary of state.

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit on March 21 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The group cites a requirement in Intelligence Community Directive 732 that says a damage assessment may be conducted if there is "an actual or suspected unauthorized disclosure or compromise of classified national intelligence that may cause damage to U.S. national security."

The suit zeroes in a July 2016 statement made by FBI director James Comey in relation to Clinton's email practices.

"From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received," Comey said at the time. "Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification."

The group notes that despite Directive 732, the Office of National Intelligence announced in September 2016 that no intelligence damage assessment into Clinton's practices would happen.

Judicial Watch has tried on numerous occasions to gather information regarding why there was no damage assessment report, the group announced in its press release.

"The Obama administration conspired with Hillary Clinton regarding her emails, so it is no surprise that Obama officials wouldn't want to hold her to account for her mishandling of classified materials," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. "This lawsuit is an opportunity for the Trump administration to get back to basics on the Clinton email scandal and find out what damage was done to our national security as a result of her illicit email practices."