the judge said the it official might have information about the purpose for setting up hillary clinton's private email server. | ap photo by josh gerstein 10/24/16 03:37 pm edt a retired state department information technology official asserted his fifth amendment rights more than 90 times during a deposition monday in a civil lawsuit related to hillary clinton's use of a private email server, according to the conservative group that brought the litigation. in august, a federal judge ordered john bentel <u+2014> former director of the information resources management staff in secretary of state clinton's office <u+2014> to submit to a sworn deposition in a freedom of information act lawsuit brought by judicial watch. story continued below when ordering the questioning of bentel, u.s. district court judge emmet sullivan noted that bentel told the house benghazi committee last year that he had no recollection of being told about clinton's private server, but emails that have become public in the past year or so showed he was informed about issues related to the server. "the court is persuaded that mr. bentel should be deposed because the record in this case appears to contradict his sworn testimony before the benghazi committee," sullivan wrote. the judge said the it official might have information about the purpose for setting up the server and whether it was intended to flout foia requests. however, the deposition proved to shed little light on the issue since bentel repeatedly invoked his rights against self-incrimination when he was questioned monday. <u+201c>the fact that yet another state department official took the fifth highlights the disturbing implication that criminal acts took place related to the clinton email and our freedom of information act requests,<u+201d> judicial watch president tom fitton said in a statement. lawyers for bentel, kyle clark and jamie lynn, did not respond to an email seeking comment on the deposition. in addition to testifying before the house benghazi panel last year, bentel spoke with the fbi in june, repeating his claim that he was unaware of the clinton server, while acknowledging he knew she had a personal email account. according to congressional sources, he spoke after receiving a grant of immunity from prosecutors. "bentel did not learn that hillary clinton was using a private email server while she was at dos until it came out in the press last year," the fbi wrote in a report summarizing the interview. the report, released recently by the fbi, says bentel was shown emails mentioning clinton's server and he said he did not remember them. two of bentel's subordinates told the state department inspector general that they went to him with concerns about clinton's use of a private email system and were told by bentel to drop the matter since state lawyers had signed off on the arrangement. he told the fbi he recalled no such discussions. by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz by jack shafer
state it official repeatedly takes fifth amendment in clinton email lawsuit - politico
josh gerstein jack shafer