Hillary Clinton could be grilled under oath about whether she and her aides used her private e-mail server to keep government business secret when she served as secretary of state, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington also ruled that Huma Abedin — wife of sext-scarred ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner — and other aides to Clinton could be questioned by lawyers for a conservative legal group that has sued for information about the e-mail server.
The entire server and its contents could also be turned over to the court, Sullivan said — another distraction for Clinton’s presidential campaign ahead of next week’s Super Tuesday primaries.
The judge said Judicial Watch can prepare a plan for “narrowly tailored discovery” into Clinton’s use of the server in the basement of her Westchester home during her four-year stint at the State Department.
“There has been a constant drip, drip, drip of declarations. When does it stop?” Sullivan said, according to The Washington Post. “This case is about the public’s right to know.”
Sullivan, a Bill Clinton appointee, said he might order subpoenas for Clinton and Abedin to return all records concerning Clinton’s private account, and not just those that were released after they had been deemed work-related.
Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s president, called the ruling “a major victory for the public’s right to know the truth about Hillary Clinton’s e-mail system.”
His group may also seek to have Clinton give testimony.
“While Mrs. Clinton’s testimony may not be required initially,” Fitton said in a statement, “it may happen that her testimony is necessary for the Court to resolve the legal issues about her unprecedented e-mail practices.”
Judicial Watch wants to question the aides, and possibly Clinton herself, to determine if the server was used to get around the Freedom of Information Act.
A State Department rep said it was aware of the ruling but declined further comment. The Obama administration could appeal the decision.
Clinton’s campaign did not immediately comment on the ruling.