Judge halts depositions for Bill and Hillary Clinton
7/21/15
A
federal judge has blocked a conservative activist's plans to force
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton
to testify in depositions stemming from a lawsuit claiming the Clinton
Foundation operated as a racketeering enterprise shaking down donors in
exchange for official favors.
U.S.
District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks issued an order barring legal
gadfly Larry Klayman from proceeding with his plans to conduct
videotaped depositions of the Clintons in Washington next week.
Middlebrooks's order, signed Monday and made public Tuesday (posted here), does not offer a reason for the ruling.
Lawyers
for the Clintons and for the foundation have asked Middlebrooks to toss
out the case and to halt discovery while he considers whether the
lawsuit should be dismissed. The Clinton lawyers contend Klayman has a
history of filing meritless lawsuits and that he should not be allowed
to demand evidence in connection with a case that is likely to be
dismissed.
Klayman's
lawsuit alleges that Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server
while serving as secretary of state interfered with responses to Freedom
of Information Act requests he filed and that the Clintons used the
system to obscure a scheme to demand to trade official favors for
donations to the Clinton Foundation.
In a filing last month, Clinton Foundation attorneys Jamie Gorelick and Jeannie Rhee called Klayman's allegations "fatuous" and legally defective.
A spokesman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign declined to comment on the decision scrubbing the planned depositions.
Middlebrooks,
who was appointed by Bill Clinton and sits in West Palm Beach, Fla.,
has not yet ruled on the motions to dismiss the case or to halt all
discovery by Klayman.
Klayman
said he doesn't believe the order means the Clintons will not be
deposed in the case. He also said he believes the judge ruled without
seeing a new filing detailing why the discovery process should go
forward.
"We’re hopeful that we’ll take their depositions in the near future," Klayman said in an interview Tuesday.
"I’ve said we’d be flexible on the dates. …Now's actually a better time
for them to be deposed before the political season gets underway."
Last
month, a magistrate informed the conservative attorney and Judicial
Watch founder that he was free to begin seeking testimony and documents
in connection with the case. Klayman has also been seeking an order to
have the court seize the Clintons' private email server while the suit
goes forward. There has been no ruling on that motion either.
Klayman
said he has also subpoenaed former Clinton aides Cheryl Mills, Harold
Ickes and Sidney Blumenthal to testify next week. No order is in place
at the moment preventing them from being deposed, but lawyers for Mills
filed a motion Monday asking Middlebrooks to quash her subpoena.
UPDATE (Wednesday, 8:38 A.M): This post has been updated to clarify that the order was signed Monday and released Tuesday on the court docket.
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