WASHINGTON—Attorney General William Barr “did the right thing on the Mueller report,” but “he’s got to look at how [the Department of Justice] is handling these transparency issues and why they are protecting Obama and Clinton,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told The Epoch Times on March 26.
“That’s what’s happening here,” said a clearly frustrated Fitton, concerning a March 11 motion by Justice Department (DOJ) lawyers representing the Department of State in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The government asked the court for “a protective order sealing any audio-visual recordings of plaintiff’s forthcoming depositions of current and former career officials at the State Department.”
“The resting state of the Deep State is secrecy,” Fitton told The Epoch Times. “This is just typical of what we are dealing with from DOJ and State on these issues.”
The government has resisted disclosure at every turn in the case since its filing, he said.
“Everything is a fight,” Fitton said. “We even have to sue to get the time of day. It’s unbelievable.”
Unedited versions of the videos of the depositions would be posted on Judicial Watch’s web site.
In its motion, DOJ lawyers representing the State Department claimed all career government employees “have a legitimate privacy interest in limiting permanent and public dissemination of video recordings of them being deposed about the alleged misconduct of others.”
They also claimed that “no legitimate public interest is served” by making deposition videos public, since the government doesn’t object to written transcripts being released.
They also argued that “given the notoriety surrounding issues relating to former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server, these individuals are at significant risk of being subjected to unwarranted attention and embarrassment.”
In addition, the DOJ lawyers said making the deposition videos public would harm the State Department’s “ability to recruit, hire, and retain talented individuals to work among its career ranks.”
Among those to be deposed are: Susan Rice, former national security adviser to President Barack Obama; former senior Obama White House aide Ben Rhodes; FBI counterintelligence division Assistant Director E.W. Priestap; Monica Hanley, former personal aide to Clinton; former Clinton deputy chief of staff Jacob Sullivan; and former Clinton senior adviser Heather Samuelson. Depositions of Rice, Rhodes, Priestap and Hanley were to be done via them responding to written questions from Judicial Watch.
The motion is the latest move by federal officials in response to Judicial Watch’s long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit, which seeks documents linked to Secretary of State Clinton’s use of a private email server for official business from 2009 to 2013 and to her actions regarding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Rhodes has refused to comply with the court’s deposition order.
In a response filed March 25, Judicial Watch argued that the DOJ’s “concerns are nothing more than sheer speculation” and noted that Cooper, “a longtime close aide to President Clinton, hypothesizes that release of his deposition video would result in ‘unwarranted harassment or embarrassment.’
“While failing to offer any specific reason for this concern, Mr. Cooper also does not mention that he previously testified before Congress on this specific matter and that a video recording of his testimony is widely available on the Internet and has been for some years.”
Despite video of Cooper’s testimony being on the internet, he didn’t cite any examples of harassment that resulted.
Judicial Watch also noted that Finney, like Cooper, has testified at length before Congress and that video of his testimony has been available on the internet for years, without harming his “privacy interest.”
A DOJ spokesman declined The Epoch Times’ request for a response to the Fitton statement.
