Judicial Watch (JW) is not through with the Clinton email scandal, reserving the right to pursue those thought guilty of malfeasance though Hillary Clinton was defeated in the general election.
On Monday, JW announced it filed a motion requesting the unsealing of audiovisual recordings of the depositions of top Clinton aides and State Department officials. Those depositions were triggered by a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that sought records about the employment status of Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to Clinton.
JW stated, “even though the election is over, the news media and the public continue to monitor and follow the proceedings in this case.” The State Department, Abedin, former State Department Director of Information Resource Management of the Executive Secretariat John Bentel, Cheryl D. Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, and Bryan Pagliano, State Department Schedule C employee, all oppose the JW motion.
JW argues that the Supreme Court has stated, “The public has a right to know details related to the creation, purpose and use of the clintonemail.com system.” Thus the audiovisual recordings of the depositions in this case should be unsealed, as the ostensible reason for concealing them was to avoid their misuse during the 2016 campaign season.
Mills asked for a court seal on the audiovisual recordings of her deposition even before she was deposed. That was granted, and the audiovisual recordings of all depositions were sealed.
But JW Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton countered, “The public and the media have a right to see these deposition videos of top officials from the Clinton State Department. The courts and the continued work of Judicial Watch is clearly the only hope of bringing sunlight into the Clinton email issue and completing the public record.”
Bentel took the Fifth Amendment 87 times during his testimony; in October, Clinton herself filed written responses to JW’s queries; virtually all of her answers included the phrase “Secretary Clinton objects to Interrogatory” or “Secretary Clinton does not recall.”