Full Panel of Federal Judges, Including Three Trump Appointees, Unanimously Reject Judicial Watch’s Effort to Depose Hillary Clinton
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
None of the ten circuit judges participating in the matter requested a vote on the petition filed by the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, including Donald Trump-appointed Judges Gregory Katsas, Justin Walker, and Neomi Rao. Judge David Tatel, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, didn’t participate in the matter.
A district court judge in March initially took unusual step of ordering discovery in a lawsuit stemming from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Judicial Watch in relation to Clinton’s emails.
“Especially in light of Judicial Watch’s present access to extensive information responsive to its proposed deposition topics, the deposition of Secretary Clinton, if allowed to proceed, at best seems likely to stray into topics utterly unconnected with the instant FOIA suit, and at worst could be used as a vehicle for harassment or embarrassment,” the judge wrote. “We refrain from opining further on these topics except to observe that neither path can be squared with the dictates of either FOIA or Rule 26.”
