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The Justice Department is not entirely taking over Hillary Clinton’s defense in the matter. | Getty Feds step in to defend Clinton in Benghazi email suit

The U.S. government has taken over part of Hillary Clinton’s defense in a civil lawsuit contending that her use of a private email server caused a breach of security that resulted in the deadly attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi in 2012.

A top Justice Department official filed a notice with a federal judge last week stating that most of the allegations against Clinton in the suit pertain to her duties as secretary of state, so the federal government will assume her defense on those claims.

“I hereby certify, on the basis of information presently available with respect to the incidents alleged in the Complaint, that Defendant Hillary Clinton was acting within the scope of her office as the Secretary of State of the United States at the time of the alleged conduct that purportedly occurred while she was in office,” wrote James Tuohey Jr, chief of the Torts Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

The plaintiffs in the suit are the parents of two American government employees killed in the Benghazi attacks: Patricia Smith the mother of State Department information officer Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, the father of CIA operative Tyrone Woods. They’re represented by conservative lawyer and longtime Clinton nemesis Larry Klayman.

The Justice Department is not entirely taking over Clinton’s defense in the matter. The suit also claims Clinton effectively defamed the plaintiffs by painting them as liars when she made false statements about the Benghazi matter last year and this year, after leaving the State Department. Justice Department lawyers said they were not stepping in to defend Clinton on those claims.

The Justice Department also filed a separate motion Friday asking that the case be thrown out on grounds that it was not properly served, arguing that the envelope sending the complaint to the U.S. Attorney’s Office was not addressed to the correct official there--although it eventually wound up in the right place.

The government’s motion argues that the plaintiffs didn’t follow the proper procedures when suing the federal government by first presenting their claim to the government agencies involved.

Clinton’s lawyers also said she was never properly served with the suit, so was not obligated to respond to it.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth bowed out of the case, rejecting the plaintiffs' attempt to keep the suit in his courtroom by designating it as related to an earlier Freedom of Information Act case over Benghazi-related talking points.

Soon after taking over the case from Lamberth, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson brushed aside Clinton’s claim she wasn’t served correctly. Even if that’s so, the judge said, there’s a strong presumption in favor of reserving cases on the merits and Clinton’s now clearly on notice of the litigation.

Jackson is an appointee of President Barack Obama.