Judicial Watch Subpoenas Google for Deleted Hillary Clinton Emails

On Wednesday, Judicial Watch issued a subpoena to Google, demanding emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that were supposedly sent to a Gmail account before being deleted. The subpoena is part of a long-term Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking "talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack" which also involves a court-ordered deposition of Clinton herself. This FOIA request uncovered Clinton's insecure private home-brew server in 2015.

"A federal court, tired of the State and Justice Departments’ gamesmanship, authorized Judicial Watch’s subpoena to Google to follow a lead on the Clinton emails," Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a statement. "DOJ and State are AWOL and covering up for Hillary Clinton, so it is again up to Judicial Watch to do the basic investigative heavy lifting to get at the truth."

The Google subpoena, announced Wednesday, demands the Big Tech company produce all Clinton emails from a Google account believed to contain Clinton's emails. Platte River Networks' IT specialist Paul Combetta reportedly used a Google account to transfer Clinton's emails from a laptop to a Platte River server, then used BleachBit to remove any traces of the emails from the laptop. The subpoena seeks all Clinton emails from her time at State, between January 21, 2009 and February 1, 2013. Google must turn over the emails by May 13.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth raised concerns about Clinton's Gmail cache during an August 2019 federal court hearing. Lamberth cited a report from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).