The new proposal from Judicial Watch asks that Hillary Clinton be ordered to testify. | Getty Conservative watchdog seeks Clinton testimony on email case

A conservative group engaged in a series of lawsuits seeking emails from Hillary Clinton's private server is asking a federal judge to order her to give a sworn deposition.

Judicial Watch filed the request Monday with U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth. Lamberth had previously agreed to allow the group to take discovery in the case in an effort to establish why the former secretary of state and likely Democratic presidential nominee used a private server and whether it was to put records beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act.


"Mrs. Clinton’s testimony will help the courts determine whether her email practices thwarted the Freedom of Information Act,” Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton said in a statement.

Earlier this month, another federal judge hearing a separate Judicial Watch case, Emmet Sullivan, approved a discovery plan to take depositions from seven current and former State Department officials. He signed an order saying a deposition of Clinton "may be necessary," but he did not immediately order one nor did the conservative group seek one in that FOIA case.

The new proposal from the conservative group asks that Clinton be ordered to testify about the "use of non-state.gov email account(s) to conduct official State Department business by Secretary Clinton and other officials and staff in the Office of the Secretary," as well as State's response to the group's request for information on talking points related to the Benghazi attack.

Fitton said in an interview Monday evening that the group was responding in part to Lamberth's ruling in March that there was "evidence of government wrongdoing and bad faith" in the State Department's responses to FOIA requests.

"I think it’s responsive to the case, which is more about Mrs. Clinton," Fitton said. "Judge Lamberth's concerns talk about her use of emails for government business and the personal email system. ... As head of the agency as the person who had the server in her name, she’s someone who we think is essential to getting answers to the questions the court is seeking here which is was FOIA thwarted and was there bad faith in handling FOIA and related requests."

A Clinton campaign spokesman dismissed the move as part of an ideologically driven effort to tarnish the Democratic candidate.

"Judicial Watch continues to clog the courts with its partisan lawsuits intended only to hurt Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign," Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said. "This suit's original purpose was to chase bogus allegations about Benghazi talking points, but with that conspiracy theory debunked, it is now being repurposed to continue to attack Hillary Clinton."

