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Judge halts depositions for Bill and Hillary Clinton and ex-aides

A federal judge has blocked a conservative activist's plans to force presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton to testify in depositions stemming from a lawsuit claiming the Clinton Foundation operated as a racketeering enterprise shaking down donors in exchange for official favors.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks issued an order barring legal gadfly Larry Klayman from proceeding with his plans to conduct videotaped depositions of the Clintons in Washington next week. Middlebrooks's order, signed Monday and made public Tuesday (posted here), does not offer a reason for the ruling.

Lawyers for the Clintons and for the foundation have asked Middlebrooks to toss out the case and to halt discovery while he considers whether the lawsuit should be dismissed. The Clinton lawyers contend Klayman has a history of filing meritless lawsuits and that he should not be allowed to demand evidence in connection with a case that is likely to be dismissed.

Klayman's lawsuit alleges that Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state interfered with responses to Freedom of Information Act requests he filed and that the Clintons used the system to obscure a scheme to demand to trade official favors for donations to the Clinton Foundation.

In a filing last month, Clinton Foundation attorneys Jamie Gorelick and Jeannie Rhee called Klayman's allegations "fatuous" and legally defective.

A spokesman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign declined to comment on the decision scrubbing the planned depositions.

Middlebrooks, who was appointed by Bill Clinton and sits in West Palm Beach, Fla., has not yet ruled on the motions to dismiss the case or to halt all discovery by Klayman.

Klayman said he doesn't believe the order means the Clintons will not be deposed in the case. He also said he believes the judge ruled without seeing a new filing detailing why the discovery process should go forward.

"We’re hopeful that we’ll take their depositions in the near future," Klayman said in an interview Tuesday. "I’ve said we’d be flexible on the dates. …Now's actually a better time for them to be deposed before the political season gets underway."

Last month, a magistrate informed the conservative attorney and Judicial Watch founder that he was free to begin seeking testimony and documents in connection with the case. Klayman has also been seeking an order to have the court seize the Clintons' private email server while the suit goes forward. There has been no ruling on that motion either.

Klayman said he has also subpoenaed former Clinton aides Cheryl Mills, Harold Ickes and Sidney Blumenthal to testify next week. However, on Tuesday, Middlebrooks signed an order (posted here) blocking depositions of those three individuals as well. In response to a motion Mills brought to quash the subpoena to her, the judge said Klayman's demand of 41 categories of documents on two weeks notice was "late" and could be overly burdensome. He put a hold on all depositions of non-parties until the motions to dismiss the suit are resolved.

UPDATE (Wednesday, 8:38 A.M): This post has been updated to clarify that the order regarding the Clintons' depositions was signed Monday and released Tuesday on the court docket.

UPDATE 2 (Wednesday, 12:14 P.M.): This post has been updated to reflect the new order regarding Mills and others.