WASHINGTON — Lawyers for the State Department have asked a federal judge to limit the scope of testimony about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail account as secretary of state.
The government filed its response late Tuesday in a public records lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal advocacy group. Federal District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan last month granted the group ‘‘limited discovery’’ into why the Democratic presidential front runner used an e-mail server at her New York home while serving as the nation’s top diplomat.
Judicial Watch wants to question eight current and former department staffers under oath, including top Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin.
In its response, the government asked the judge to strictly limit the questions that can be asked to those involving the 2009 creation of Clinton’s private email system. Topics the government asked Sullivan to forbid include the ‘‘employment status of a single employee; the storage, handling, transmission, or protection of classified information, including cybersecurity issues; and questions about any pending investigations.’’
The FBI is investigating whether sensitive information that flowed through Clinton’s email server was mishandled. The inspectors general at the State Department and for U.S. intelligence agencies are separately investigating whether rules or laws were broken.
There are also at least 38 civil lawsuits, including one filed by the Associated Press, seeking records related to Clinton’s time as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
Critics of Clinton’s decision to rely on the private server have suggested it potentially made her communications more vulnerable to being stolen by hackers, including those working for foreign intelligence agencies.
In response to public records requests, the State Department has released more than 52,000 pages of her work-related e-mails, a small percentage of which have been withheld because they contain information considered sensitive to national security. Thousands of additional e-mails have been withheld by Clinton, whose lawyers say they contain personal messages unrelated to her government service.
Clinton has admitted on the campaign trail that her home-based e-mail setup was a mistake, but insists she never sent or received any documents that were marked classified at the time.
Associated Press
Ivanka Trump scarves recalled for ‘burn risk’
Made-in-China Ivanka Trump-brand scarves are being recalled because they are too flammable and pose a ‘‘burn risk’’ to consumers.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday that no injuries have been reported.
The recall involves about 20,000 rayon scarves, sold from October 2014 through January 2016 in department stores and online. They cost from $12 to $68.
Trump’s father, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has criticized companies that move manufacturing outside the United States and has threatened to impose steep tariffs on Chinese imports if elected.
He has acknowledged, however, that some of his own products were made outside the United States.
‘‘We’re seeing to it that this issue is fixed immediately,’’ a spokeswoman for the Ivanka Trump collection said.
Associated Press
Hastert lawyers ask judge to spare him jail time
CHICAGO — Dennis Hastert’s lawyers asked a federal judge Wednesday to spare the former US House speaker time behind bars in his hush-money case and sentence him to probation, saying the 74-year-old has already paid a steep price in shame and disgrace.
A filing in federal court in Chicago — where the Illinois Republican is scheduled for sentencing on April 27 — says Hastert ‘‘apologizes for his misconduct that occurred decades ago’’ and is ‘‘overwhelmed by the guilt.’’
Associated Press
