A federal judge pressed the State Department to ask the FBI for records stored on Hillary Clinton’s private server.
Judge Emmet Sullivan dismissed on Thursday the State Department legal team’s argument that it had already conducted a “reasonable search” in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch.
Sullivan blasted the agency for its silence on the status of Clinton’s emails and the server that housed them.
“The court should not have to rely on media reports,” Sullivan said during a hearing in U.S. District Court Thursday.
The State Department has previously said it has no intention of conducting its own search of the server now in custody of the fbi.
Sullivan also demanded the State Department ask Clinton to specify whether a third-party firm provided backup services to her email network.
Judicial Watch is seeking records related to the employment status of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s former deputy chief of staff.
Abedin received a “special government employee” designation that allowed her to work simultaneously for the state department, the Clinton Foundation and a controversial consulting firm called Teneo strategies.
Clinton’s server was managed by Platte River Networks, a Denver-based firm, since she left the State Department in 2013.
An attorney for Platte River said the company migrated all data off Clinton’s server in mid-2013 and stated there was “no useful data” left on the server.
State officials have claimed there are no documents related to
Judicial Watch’s FOIA request among the 55,000 pages of emails clinton handed over last year.
The agency said Thursday it had identified roughly 200 pages of responsive documents among five of its offices, including within the email accounts of two former officials the state department refused to name.
One of the unidentified officials worked in the office of Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary in charge of the agency’s record keeping.
An attorney for Judicial Watch encouraged Sullivan to call Kennedy before the court and ask him under oath to provide details about the agency’s knowledge of Clinton’s email system.
The State Department never gave Clinton a government Blackberry phone or laptop, the agency’s legal team admitted in court filings earlier this week.
The Blackberry phones issued to Abedin and Cheryl mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, have since been destroyed or excesses.
Sullivan also requested a copy of a report being prepared by the state department inspector general about the email system. State’s watchdog is presently investigating the network.
The judge encouraged judicial watch’s legal team to hold off on including the FBI in its FOIA litigation pending the results of the State Department’s attempts to establish a dialogue with the FBI about the records potentially contained on Clinton’s server.
