Cheryl Mills speaks to reporters in Washington on Sept. 3, 2015. | AP Photo Lawyers clashed at Clinton aide's deposition

Lawyers for former Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, the State Department, and a conservative group tangled repeatedly on Friday as Mills testified at a contentious deposition in a lawsuit relating to Clinton's use of a private email account and server during her tenure as secretary of state, a transcript of the session shows.

The testimony illustrated the complexity of getting to the bottom of the email mess as Mills' attorney, Beth Wilkinson, objected to a variety of questions that she said intruded on Clinton's attorney-client privilege by asking about Mills work for Clinton as a private lawyer after serving for nearly four years as Clinton's chief of staff at the State Department.


Wilkinson and a State Department lawyer also objected that many of the questions asked by an attorney for Judicial Watch went beyond the areas permitted by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, who authorized fact-finding highly unusual in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

When Judicial Watch lawyer Ramona Cotca asked Mills whether she'd discussed Clinton's email issues with lawyer Heather Samuelson, Wilkinson jumped in.

"I'm going to object right now. Beyond the scope," Wilkinson said.

"I'm asking who represented Secretary Clinton," Cotca replied.

"That's totally irrelevant to the areas that we're here to talk about," Wilkinson shot back. "I'm going to instruct her not to answer on these issues."

An effort by Cotca to explore the role of computer specialist Bryan Pagliano in arranging Clinton's server met with a similar result.

"What did Mr. Pagliano tell you in those conversations you had about the setup of the server?" Cotca asked.

"Objection. Beyond the scope. And I'm going to instruct her not to answer," Wilkinson said.

"Objection. Beyond the scope and potentially calls for privilege," Justice Department attorney Marcia Berman chimed in.

While much of the deposition was occupied by such legal jousting, Mills did testify that she had no recollection of any discussion at the outset of Clinton's service as secretary about Clinton possibly using a State Department account.

"Secretary Clinton continued a practice that she was using of [sic] her personal email," Mills said according to the transcript. "I don't know that I could articulate that there was a specific discussion as opposed to her continuation of the practice she had been using when she was a Senator. ... I don't have a specific memory of the conversations that may or may not have occurred. I know that I understood she was going to be using her personal email and that's what she did."

Mills also said she thought Clinton's email was subject to search for FOIA requests, but could not recall any discussion with others in Clinton's office about that specific issue.

"I don't have a recollection of having a discussion with somebody in the Secretary's office and her email being subject to FOIA. It was my impression it was," the former aide said.

Mills said she expected that Clinton's support staff knew about the private email address, but never specifically talked to them about how to handle FOIA requests covering the secretary's messages.

"I would also be surprised that they would be unaware that [her account] was not on the State.gov system. ... Certainly, from my standpoint I wish that had been something we thought about," the former chief of staff said. She also said she thought, incorrectly, that all emails sent to or from state.gov email addresses were preserved "forever."

In response to a question from Berman, Mills denied that the private email arrangement was intended to avoid making records available under FOIA. "Absolutely not," the longtime Cinton aide said.

However, when Mills was asked whether she refused to speak to the State Department's Office of Inspector General about a FOIA request a liberal watchdog group submitted for details on Clinton's use of a personal email account, Mills' lawyer again objected.

"Beyond the scope. I'm going to instruct her not to answer," Wilkinson said.

Mills did say she wasn't sure why the State Department abandoned a proposal for Clinton to use a standalone computer to check her private email account, but the former aide confirmed that Clinton didn't have much familiarity with computers. (Records show she did her emailing through a BlackBerry and an iPad.)

"I do know know why it was not set up," Mills said. "I do know she was not someone who used a computer, And so to the extent the objective was to place that computer there for her use, it would not have been used."

At least 11 attorneys were on hand for Mills' testimony, not including the witness herself, who is a former deputy White House counsel under President Bill Clinton. The session held at a court reporter's office in downtown Washington stretched from a little after 9 A.M. Friday to just after 4 P.M., including several breaks.

Mills' testimony was videotaped, but last week Sullivan issued an order putting those videos under seal indefinitely.

