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Judge halts Clinton email lawsuit, for now

A federal judge has put on hold a lawsuit related to Hillary Clinton's private email server, rejecting both the Justice Department's bid to resolve the case in the government's favor and a conservative group's demand to force the State Department to turn over more information about the issue.

In staying the Freedom of Information Act suit Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton cited ongoing discovery in two other cases filed by the watchdog group Judicial Watch. In one of those cases, several top aides to Clinton have given depositions or are scheduled to give depositions before the end of this month.

In the suit Walton halted Tuesday, Judicial Watch had sought details on why Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy and former State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh corresponded with Clinton at her private address, but apparently did not ensure her emails were searched in response to pending FOIA requests.

The judge didn't rule out allowing the group to inquire into that issue via written questions or depositions of State officials, but he said it appeared those questions were within the ambit of the fact-finding process already underway in other litigation.

"To avoid duplicative discovery and unnecessary expenditure of public funds, the Court will stay this case pending the completion of discovery in those other cases," Walton wrote in a three- page order.

The judge also noted that a federal appeals court is currently considering a separate lawsuit that tests the government's obligation to search a private email account maintained by an agency head, in that case the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

At arguments in that appeal in January, the judges seemed to be leaning toward a ruling that emails kept in a personal account could sometimes be subject to FOIA. However, no decision has yet been issued.

Walton, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said it was "wise" to wait for that ruling and he instructed the parties to the lawsuit in his court to "follow" whatever ruling the D.C. Circuit produces in that appeal.

The FOIA lawsuit before Walton sought information about a video of President Barack Obama and Clinton the State Department arranged to air in Pakistan. The video was released in September 2012 in the wake of the Benghazi attack and unrest about an anti-Muslim movie trailer posted on YouTube.

Most of the dozens of other FOIA suits filed by critics of the presumptive Democratic nominee and by news organizations were brought after Clinton stepped down as secretary of state in February 2013.

However, the case before Walton was filed in December 2012, so could be better positioned than others to explore the State Department's obligations to search Clinton's private account while she was in office and was regularly using it for official business.