Clinton Seeks to Avoid Deposition on Email Server

Hillary Clinton jumped into a public-records lawsuit Tuesday to try to avoid a deposition about the private email system she used as secretary of state.

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, has filed a motion arguing that it needs to depose the presumptive Democratic nominee for president to answer six questions. The legal group has been pursuing a lawsuit that seeks records from Clinton’s email.

Lawyers for Clinton filed a 25-page opposition to that motion Tuesday, stating that the record in the case already answers those questions or makes it clear that Clinton has no personal knowledge to provide.

The FBI concluded that Clinton did not intend to conceal records from the public, and FBI Director James B. Comey testified about the investigation for more than four hours this month, Clinton’s lawyers wrote. Clinton also testified publicly before Congress in October.

“The ostensible purpose of the requested discovery is to determine whether this Court should compel Secretary Clinton to produce her @clintonemail.com account (including any personal e-mail) from her private e-mail server equipment to the State Department for further searching in response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request,” Clinton’s lawyers wrote. “Even if this Court had authority to issue such unprecedented relief, Secretary Clinton has nothing to produce, as the server equipment used to host her @ clintonemail.com account is in [the]possession of the FBI.”

Judicial Watch has deposed seven current and former State Department employees in the lawsuit. A judge is set to make a decision on whether Clinton must testify at a later date.

The filing coincides with continued scrutiny of Clinton’s email system, including on Capitol Hill. House Republicans formally asked federal prosecutors on Monday to investigate whether Hillary Clinton lied to Congress about classified information on her private email server. Attorney General Loretta Lynch was also asked about her decision not to prosecute Clinton during a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.