A conservative watchdog group published the transcript Thursday from the first deposition in a highly-anticipated court case over Hillary Clinton’s private emails.
Lewis Lukens, former executive secretary at the State Department, was deposed by Judicial Watch on May 18 for his role in setting up office space and making other logistical arrangements ahead of Clinton’s transition to the agency in 2009.
Lukens said he did not believe the State Department ever provided Clinton with a computer for her office, while the agency did assign former Secretary of State Colin Powell a computer.
Clinton has often cited Powell’s occasional use of private email as evidence that her digital communications were similar to her predecessors’.
Lukens said he proposed setting up a computer in an office across from Clinton’s that was not connected to the State Department’s system because doing so “would make it easier for her to log on.”
“She would have required fewer passwords,” Lukens said, adding that he was unaware that there were any requirements at the time that her computer be connected to the government network.
Lukens later admitted the State Department system only required one password that was simply changed every eight to 12 weeks.
The longtime State Department official said he never gave what kind of email arrangement Clinton was using much thought.
“I assumed that she was using a commercially available email account,” Lukens said.
Lukens testified that he was told by Cheryl Mills, then Clinton’s chief of staff, that Clinton did not want a computer because she only knew how to check her emails on a Blackberry.
But Lukens said he saw Clinton with her Blackberry “infrequently … a few times a month” despite accompanying the secretary on all her foreign trips.
“I don’t believe it was a State Department BlackBerry,” Lukens said of the device.
He noted Huma Abedin, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, had a State Department-issued BlackBerry but added that she also carried a second BlackBerry with her “at times.”
Lukens said “my understanding [of why Clinton wanted to check her email] was for her to stay in touch with family and friends.”
He testified that he did not know Clinton would be conducting official business on her BlackBerry email.
“My understanding was that she was using the equipment to contact family and friends,” he said of Clinton’s BlackBerry.
The deposition was conducted at the Department of Justice.
Mills is scheduled for a deposition in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Friday.
