Clinton’s Muslim Brotherhood-Tied Aide’s Emails Now Facing Disclosure Lawsuit

Huma Abedin, the Muslims Brotherhood-tied aide of Hillary Rodham Clinton, is now facing the same scrutiny as her boss. After the State Department failed to turn them over in response to an open records request, there is now a disclosure lawsuit in the works.
Judicial Watch had asked a federal court to reopen the lawsuit seeking email records from Huma Abedin.
Judicial Watch reported back in March:

Judicial Watch filed a Motion for Relief and Request for Hearing today in Washington, D.C., with U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan:

Because the FOIA request at issue in this litigation included communications of Secretary Clinton and Ms. Abedin, Judicial Watch seeks to reopen this litigation to remedy the Department's failure to retain, records-manage, and search for these records. The State Department should be required to search the 55,000 pages of records returned by Secretary Clinton, conduct additional, broader searches for responsive records that may not have been captured by earlier searches, and otherwise remedy any spoliation.

Judicial Watch is seeking to reopen this lawsuit under a federal court rule (Rule 60(b)(3)) that allows a party to reopen a case due to "fraud (whether previously called intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or misconduct by an opposing party":

The State Department had an obligation under the Federal Records Act to properly preserve, maintain, and make available for retrieval records of its official functions. In fact, it is the obligation of the head of every federal agency to do so.  Secretary Clinton plainly violated her own legal obligations. Doing so was misconduct.

Judicial Watch alleges that it is "incomprehensible" that the State Department did not know that its "searches" did not capture emails of Hillary Clinton and other top State officials:

Despite knowing that the emails of Secretary Clinton and likely the emails of Ms. Abedin and other high level officials were not searched, the State Department represented to Judicial Watch that the records of the Executive Secretariat had been searched.  At no point did the State Department inform Judicial Watch that the Secretary's emails and the emails of Ms. Abedin and other high level officials could not be searched.  These were misrepresentations.

Judicial Watch relied upon the State Department's misrepresentation that it conducted a search of the Office of the Executive Secretariat [which would have included emails of Hillary Clinton's and other top State officials].  It was lead to believe that the State Department's search was proper.  It now knows it was not.  Had Judicial Watch known that the State Department's search excluded Secretary Clinton's emails and the emails of Ms. Abedin and other high level officials, Judicial Watch would not have stipulated to the dismissal of this case…

"Hillary Clinton's misconduct and the resulting fraud by the State Department disrupted and ended our federal FOIA lawsuit about Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton's closest political associates," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. "Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration concealed records and lied to obstruct a federal court and Judicial Watch from finding out about the secret emails.  Time is of the essence.  Immediate court action is imperative to retrieve, recover and secure these public records from Mrs. Clinton."
Judicial Watch has upwards of 20 pending and dismissed lawsuits for records that may have been impacted by the Clinton email issue.  Additional requests for court relief are planned.

On Tuesday, the Washington Times reported:

The emails of Huma Abedin, the top personal aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are now facing a disclosure lawsuit after the State Department failed to turn them over in response to an open-records request.

Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest law firm that uses open-records laws to pry information loose, had filed a request to get a look at Ms. Abedin's emails during her four years at the State Department. News outlets have reported that Ms. Abedin also used the private email server Mrs. Clinton set up to handle government business, but the status of her messages is unclear.

It's one of a number of open-records requests Judicial Watch filed after the email scandal broke, and Tom Fitton, president of the organization, said they've been stonewalled on all of them, so now they're turning to the courts.

"We're churning through these," he said. "The scandal at the State Department is more than about Hillary Clinton. There are others involved."

The State Department said it wouldn't comment now that Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit — though it had struggled to explain its procedures even before the lawsuit was filed, and it's still unclear what the status is of Ms. Abedin's emails.

Both Clinton and Abedin were reported to be in breach of the Federal Records Act. Part of the investigation concerns ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, while others focus on aspects of Benghazi and foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation.
Leading the charge behind the email scandal is Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who asks the right questions, but has not yet been able to bring forth the evidence. That may be about to change with this latest lawsuit by Judicial Watch.
         
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