Subject: 2016 GOP HIT on HRC
From: "Hendricks, Lauren" <[email-masked]>
To: Tony Carrk <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Brinster, Jeremy" <[email-masked]>, "Crystal, Andy" <[email-masked]>, "Dillon, Lauren" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2016 06:45:47 -0700

RNC Tweet
5/18/16 9:44 AM
Read Here<https://twitter.com/GOP/status/732929750281265152>
Hillary Clinton's aides will be deposed over her secret email server that exposed classified information on.wsj.com/1OzEAki<https://t.co/wN9Nq693Qn>
Interviews in Civil Suit Over Hillary Clinton Email Server to Begin This Week<http://www.wsj.com/articles/interviews-in-civil-suit-over-hillary-clinton-email-server-to-begin-this-week-1463506592>
Current and former State Department officials will be questioned under oath
[Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaking in New York earlier this year. Interviews with current and former State Department officials concerning her use of a private email server during her time at the department will begin this week.]
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaking in New York earlier this year. Interviews with current and former State Department officials concerning her use of a private email server during her time at the department will begin this week. PHOTO: BRYAN R. SMITH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
By
BYRON TAU
May 17, 2016 1:36 p.m. ET
70 COMMENTS<http://www.wsj.com/articles/interviews-in-civil-suit-over-hillary-clinton-email-server-to-begin-this-week-1463506592#livefyre-comment>

WASHINGTON-Interviews in a civil lawsuit with current and former State Department officials concerning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server<http://www.wsj.com/articles/watchdog-group-seeking-to-interview-hillary-clinton-about-email-server-1463442840> will begin this week.

Lewis Lukens, a former deputy assistant secretary of state, will be interviewed under oath in the first deposition taken as part of a lawsuit by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch over access to Mrs. Clinton's records during her time in office.

The civil lawsuit, which targets the State Department, doesn't name Mrs. Clinton as a defendant, but it has the potential to complicate her presidential bid<http://www.wsj.com/articles/emails-are-likely-to-keep-complicating-hillary-clintons-campaign-1463001566>. Mrs. Clinton is seeking to clinch the Democratic nomination against rival Bernie Sanders and turn her attention to a likely general-election contest against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The depositions, which will explore why Mrs. Clinton set up a private email server for her government work, will become part of the public record. Judge Emmet Sullivan, a Democratic appointee, granted Judicial Watch the right to conduct discovery, allowing the group to seek information from State Department officials-a rare order in a case concerning the Freedom of Information Act.

The deposition of Mr. Lukens will be followed by an interview next week with Cheryl D. Mills, Mrs. Clinton's top aide at the State Department. Five other depositions are scheduled between now and the end of June, according to a schedule filed with the court.

Those interviews under oath will include Mrs. Clinton's close aide Huma Abedin and Bryan Pagliano, the technology staffer who set up Mrs. Clinton's private server<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/05/09/state-department-cant-find-emails-of-hillary-clinton-server-staffer/>.

Mr. Pagliano refused to testify in front of Congress last year, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination. He has since been offered immunity by the Justice Department as part of an FBI investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information.

Mrs. Clinton's use of a private email server was discouraged but not explicitly forbidden by State Department rules during her service in government. Under federal law, all of Mrs. Clinton's work emails belong to the federal government and are eligible for release under the Freedom of Information Act.

The controversy over her use of a private email server run out of her home for all her government work has roiled her presidential campaign since being uncovered last year. Mrs. Clinton has apologized and said her decision was a mistake, but has also noted that she was permitted by law to use her own email account and that previous secretaries of state also used personal email accounts for government business.

In a February hearing, Judge Sullivan called the case "troubling" and signaled that he was open to using the proceedings to explore why a top government official was permitted to use her own email server for work.

In a separate lawsuit in front of a different judge-concerning access to talking points in the aftermath of a 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi<http://www.wsj.com/articles/benghazi-panel-and-state-department-spar-over-documents-1463177325>, Libya-Judicial Watch has asked to interview Mrs. Clinton herself under oath. That decision on whether to compel Mrs. Clinton to testify is expected later this summer.

The FBI is expected to question Mrs. Clinton in coming weeks as part of its investigation.

Write to Byron Tau at [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>

Lauren Hendricks