A federal judge called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonButtigieg stands in as Pence for Harris's debate practice Senate GOP sees early Supreme Court vote as political booster shot Poll: 51 percent of voters want to abolish the electoral college MORE's use of a private email server while in office "one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency."

Judge Royce Lamberth sharply criticized both Clinton and lawyers for the Trump administration in a ruling Thursday granting the conservative group Judicial Watch discovery in their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the State and Justice departments.

Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, slammed both the use of the server and the government's investigation.

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"At best, State's efforts to pass off its deficient search as legally adequate during settlement negotiations was negligence born out of incompetence," Lamberth wrote of the department's review of emails Clinton provided to investigators.

"At worst, career employees at the State and Justice departments colluded to scuttle public scrutiny of Clinton, skirt FOIA, and hoodwink this court," he added.

In his ruling, Lamberth ordered the agencies to develop a plan with Judicial Watch for a discovery plan within 10 days that will determine whether Clinton used the server to evade FOIA requests. He also ruled that the plan should determine whether the State Department sought to settle the case with Judicial Watch "despite knowing the inadequacies of the initial search constituted bad faith."

President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE and Republicans have blasted Clinton's use of a private server to send and receive emails pertaining to her government work. An FBI probe into her use of the server ended with no charges filed.

Judicial Watch alleges that Clinton used the server to avoid public scrutiny of her work.