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Judge dismisses lawsuit against Hillary Clinton
[July 17, 2009] WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Thursday threw out a 13-year-old lawsuit against Hillary Rodham Clinton involving the White House's handling of FBI background records.
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The case extends back to the secretary of state's time as first lady and has included a voluminous record of nearly 1,500 legal filings. But Clinton was summarily removed as a defendant in a three-page opinion by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. Attorneys who have pursued the case, sometimes known as "Filegate," had argued it should not be dismissed until Clinton testifies. Lamberth disagreed, saying there is no legal reason that he should "require a person who is a busy Cabinet secretary at this point to submit to an oral deposition." The FBI file controversy erupted in 1996 when the Clinton administration, which was under investigation for the firing of White House travel office employees, acknowledged it sought and received the FBI files of hundreds of prominent Republicans. The Clinton administration said the files were requested because President George H.W. Bush, like other presidents, had taken all the White House personnel files with him upon leaving office, even those of permanent White House employees. Like other administrations, the Clinton White House asked for the FBI background checks on everyone working in the complex to reconstitute the personnel files, but the staff members who handled the request failed to purge the names of obvious Republican political appointees of past administrations from the lists sent to the FBI, the Clinton White House said. Republicans accused Clinton of misusing the FBI to get information on political enemies. An independent counsel report in 2000 found no evidence of wrongdoing by White House aides or Clinton. |
