State Department wants questions to Clinton aides 'limited' in e-mail case

State Department lawyers want a federal judge to require that any questions asked to current or former State Department officials as part of an ongoing court case involving Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server be “limited” and fine-tuned ahead of time.

In a court filing late on April 5, government attorneys asked the US District Court for the District of Columbia to limit questions to the creation of Clinton’s personal e-mail system. Other topics — such as the handling of classified information, the FBI’s ongoing investigation connected to the server or the unusual employment arrangement of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin — should be off-limits, the government insisted. “State submits that the scope of discovery must be limited and specified at the outset to prevent questioning that exceeds the limited inquiry that the court has authorized,” lawyers said in their motion. The evidence-gathering process, which can include sworn depositions, is formally known as discovery.