The judge's order explicitly left open the question of whether Hillary Clinton should be subject to a deposition about the private email arrangement. | Getty Judge OKs deposition plan in Hillary Clinton email case

A federal judge has approved a plan to take sworn testimony from former aides to Hillary Clinton about her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order Wednesday approving the discovery plan, which was agreed to by the State Department and Judicial Watch, a conservative group that demanded Clinton's emails under the Freedom of Information Act.


"The circumstances surrounding approval of Mrs. Clinton’s use of clintonemail.com for official government business, as well as the manner in which it was operated, are issues that need to be explored in discovery to enable the Court to resolve, as a matter of law, the adequacy of the State Department’s search of relevant records in response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request," Sullivan wrote in his 15-page order.

Sullivan's order explicitly left open the question of whether Clinton should be subject to a deposition about the private email arrangement. The order calls for depositions over the next eight weeks of former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills, former deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin and former information technology specialist Bryan Pagliano. Also slated to be deposed under the plan are Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, former executive secretary Stephen Mull and former Executive Secretariat executive director Lewis Lukens.

The eight-week period to complete the depositions will conclude in late June. That timing has the potential to tee up a debate about a possible deposition of Clinton just a few weeks before she is expected to receive the Democratic nomination for president at the party's national convention in Philadelphia.

The State Department objected to any depositions in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, but Sullivan ruled earlier this year that they were appropriate given questions about why Clinton's private email server was set up.

State eventually agreed to the discovery plan Sullivan approved Wednesday. However, it is unclear whether the former Clinton aides who aren't State employees any longer will agree to the depositions. Attorneys for the ex-officials have not responded to inquiries about whether they will seek to quash any subpoenas in the case.

The FBI has also been investigating issues related to Clinton's private server since last summer. Pagliano reportedly asserted the Fifth Amendment in that inquiry and later struck an immunity deal with prosecutors. He has declined to cooperate with a Senate inquiry into the matter.

The FBI is expected to ask Clinton to be interviewed in that probe, but she told MSNBC in an interview Tuesday that the law enforcement agency has not yet reached out to her.

Asked Wednesday if Clinton or her aides plan to go along with the deposition plan, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon stressed Clinton's willingness to cooperate with the FBI in its inquiry.

"While we continue to monitor developments in the many, politically motivated lawsuits filed by the same, right-wing groups that have been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s, our focus remains on the independent review being conducted by the Justice Department," Fallon said. "Hillary Clinton has long expressed her willingness to cooperate in that review in order to help them complete their work. We remain confident that review will affirm that nothing inappropriate took place."

An attorney for Pagliano declined to comment Wednesday. A lawyer for Mills and Abedin did not respond to requests for comment.

Sullivan indicated in his order Wednesday that he believes there are legitimate questions about whether the server arrangement was set up to evade FOIA requests.

"Judicial Watch raises significant questions in its Motion for Discovery about whether the State Department processed documents in good faith in response to Judicial Watch's FOIA request. Judicial Watch is therefore entitled to limited discovery," the judge wrote.

"Critical facts related to the clintonemail.com server preclude a legal analysis, at this time, of whether the State Department conducted an adequate search under FOIA," Sullivan wrote at another point in his order.

The judge noted that Clinton and Abedin turned over to the State Department messages from the accounts each maintained on Clinton's server. However, he pointed out that the former officials decided what to make available.

"Notably, the process by which the State Department took possession of Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Abedin’s federal records from the clintonemail.com server was through self-selection by Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Abedin, Ms. Mills and their private counsel," wrote Sullivan, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton.