Federal judge orders State Dept. to search Clinton aides’ emails for Benghazi messages

A federal judge has ordered the State Department to search its email systems for any messages sent to and from Hillary Clinton’s top aides during her stint as secretary for any correspondence concerning the September 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta compelled the agency to search the state.gov accounts of Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan on Tuesday while weighing in on a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in 2015 by a conservative watchdog group seeking records related to the attack that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.

The State Department responded to Judicial Watch’s lawsuit by scouring tens of thousands of emails for messages relevant to the group’s request but failed to turn over every stone in its search, the ruling indicated.