--- title: Hillary Clinton E-Mail Cases Will Continue in Civil Suits description: The presumptive Democratic nominee may be deposed and more e-mails will be made public. canonical: https://time.com/4397268/hillary-clinton-email-civil-lawsuits/ author: Massimo Calabresi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-07T21:11:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:07:19.172Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Clinton's E-Mail Case Isn't Over og:description: Civil suits will keep the case alive through the elections. og:url: https://time.com/4397268/hillary-clinton-email-civil-lawsuits/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb195cd3545977864/69888b603c1639157545c783/hillary-clinton-emails.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton emails nsa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Clinton's E-Mail Case Isn't Over twitter:description: Civil suits will keep the case alive through the elections. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb195cd3545977864/69888b603c1639157545c783/hillary-clinton-emails.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton's E-Mail Case Will Live on in Civil Suits  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Jul 7, 2016 9:11 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton holds a press conference regarding her UN Woman's Day speech and her email controversy at United Nations on March 10, 2015 in New York City. Hillary Clinton holds a press conference regarding her UN Woman's Day speech and her email controversy at United Nations on March 10, 2015 in New York City.Steve Sands—WireImage  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Jul 7, 2016 9:11 PM UTC During more than four and a half hours of candid and highly unusual [testimony](http://time.com/4396426/james-comey-house-committee-testimony/) before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Thursday, FBI Director James [Comey](http://time.com/4394178/hillary-clinton-email-fbi-investigation/) delivered what will likely remain the definitive word on Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server to send and receive e-mails when she was Secretary of State. But with multiple ongoing civil suits seeking access to those e-mails, it is unlikely to be the last. Starting at 10 a.m. Thursday, Republicans and Democrats grilled Comey about the unanimous recommendation that he, his FBI investigators and career federal prosecutors [made](http://time.com/4394178/hillary-clinton-email-fbi-investigation/) to Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Tuesday not to bring criminal charges against Clinton and her aides in the year-long probe. In response, Comey provided lawmakers with a surprising amount of information about the investigation into potential mishandling of classified information and what it found. That may have accomplished Comey’s stated goal of providing unprecedented transparency into the investigation because of the “intense public interest” in the matter and brought a formal end to Clinton’s legal jeopardy. But several Freedom of Information Act [suits](http://time.com/4337518/hillary-clinton-emails-judicial-watch-civil-lawsuit/) in Washington, D.C., courts will keep the issue in the headlines through the November election. Multiple cases are already seeking access to previously undisclosed e-mails the FBI discovered during the investigation. In two of the cases, the conservative group Judicial Watch is expected to ask to depose Clinton in coming weeks. State has released tens of thousands of Clinton’s emails in response to FOIA suits from private groups and members of the media over the last two years. Department officials say they will work to recover from the FBI any new documents that have emerged through the investigation. “As we have said for many months, we will work with the FBI to determine the appropriate disposition of potential federal records it has recovered,” said State Department Spokesperson John Kirby. That will not be a small job. On Tuesday Comey said: --- > “” --- Comey said there was no evidence Clinton or others intentionally deleted those thousands of newly discovered work-related e-mails in an effort to conceal them. On Thursday, he said the FBI had concluded that Clinton set the server up for convenience. “Our best information is she set it up as a matter of convenience,” Comey told the committee members. Clinton may also face the prospect of being deposed by Judicial Watch in two cases. The group has already deposed her close aides in one case after Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled last spring that doing so was the only way to determine whether the State department had fully complied with the group’s FOIA request. Judicial Watch may also ask to depose Clinton in another case before Judge Royce Lamberth for similar reasons. During the House hearing Thursday, Republicans asked Comey about the testimony Clinton gave during her three and a half hour interview with the FBI last week. Normally such conversations would not be made public, but Comey said he wanted to provide the public with maximum transparency. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, asked Comey if Clinton knew and approved of her legal team permanently deleting the work e-mails the FBI later recovered. Comey said the FBI had asked those questions during the interview and that Clinton did not know of the deletions and hadn’t approved them. That won’t necessarily be the end of it. Near the end of the hearing, Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz asked Comey whether the FBI had investigated whether Clinton had intentionally tried to thwart FOIA through her actions. Comey said the FBI had not investigated that question. That is likely because the FBI only investigates crimes and intentionally thwarting FOIA is not one. But it could be relevant to the charge that Clinton violated the Federal Records Act, which can be a criminal misdemeanor. The Supreme Court [has set a high bar](http://time.com/4319639/hillary-clinton-emails-henry-kissinger-william-rehnquist-foia/?iid=sr-link10) for successfully prosecuting such violations, however. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4397268/hillary-clinton-email-civil-lawsuits/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4397268/hillary-clinton-email-civil-lawsuits/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton's E-Mail Case Will Live on in Civil Suits","datePublished":"2016-07-07T21:11:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:07:19.172Z","description":"She may be deposed and more e-mails will be made public","url":"https://time.com/4397268/hillary-clinton-email-civil-lawsuits/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","FBI","James Comey","jason chaffetz","loretta lynch"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb195cd3545977864/69888b603c1639157545c783/hillary-clinton-emails.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Massimo Calabresi","jobTitle":"Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief.","url":"https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb195cd3545977864/69888b603c1639157545c783/hillary-clinton-emails.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton emails nsa","caption":"Hillary Clinton emails nsa","creditText":"Steve Sands—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4397268/hillary-clinton-email-civil-lawsuits/","name":"Hillary Clinton's E-Mail Case Will Live on in Civil Suits"}}]}] ```