A federal judge issued an order Wednesday that could lead to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton providing testimony regarding her use of an unsecured email system while she served as secretary of state.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan observed that Clinton could be deposed when approving a discovery plan from watchdog group Judicial Watch demanding sworn testimony from former Clinton aides in an ongoing freedom-of-information lawsuit, NBC News reported.
Depending on the information procured during the investigation, Sullivan said an interview with Clinton "may be necessary."
The court is working to resolve whether the State Department adequately searched for the "relevant records," including emails, asked for in Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding aide Huma Abedin’s special employment status.
"The circumstances surrounding approval of Mrs. Clinton’s use of clintonemail.com for official government business, as well as the manner in which it was operated, are issues that need to be explored in discovery," Sullivan wrote.
The investigation is expected to last eight weeks, concluding in early July. The final announcement could land just weeks before Clinton is expected to receive the Democratic nomination for president.
The discovery plan demanded depositions from at least six current and former State Department employees, including Abedin, former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills, and former IT staffer Bryan Pagliano, who set up Clinton’s server in her home in 2009.
Pagliano has been cooperating with the FBI in a separate investigation into Clinton’s private email server to determine whether classified information was mishandled.
Government officials found that over 2,000 emails on Clinton’s server contain classified information, though none were marked classified on her personal system. Twenty-two messages withheld from public release are "top secret," the highest classification level.
This is the third discovery Judicial Watch has been granted in public records lawsuits against State Department.