Why are the Trump Justice Department and the State Department supporting Hillary Clinton in her appeal to overturn a court order granting government watchdog Judicial Watch the right to question the former secretary of state under oath about the unsecure, private email system she used to transmit classified information?

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton posed that question in a “Lou Dobbs Tonight” interview on the Fox Business Network, noting Clinton is “not above the law.”

“If it were any other litigant they’d be pushed out of court pretty darn quick,” Fitton said.

He pointed out that the motion by Clinton’s lawyers to overturn the ruling granting the deposition is regarded by the Justice Department as one that is used in “extraordinary” circumstances.

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“Obviously that doesn’t cover Mrs. Clinton having to go under oath about her email misconduct. She says she has an indisputable right not to be questioned under oath, and we’ve laid out any issues outstanding that the court also wants answered,” said Fitton.

“She’s not above the law,” he said. “We hope the appellate court quickly dismisses [her challenge to the depositions].”

See the interview:

It was U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth who granted the deposition of Clinton to Judicial Watch after ordering discovery two years ago in a lawsuit probing whether Clinton set up the private email system to avoid Freedom of Information requests. The complaint also alleged the State Department’s plan to settle the case was in “bad faith” and that State conducted an inadequate search for Clinton’s records.

Clinton and her former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, who also was ordered deposed, want the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn the order.

Judicial Watch said the Clinton request comes in its lawsuit seeking records concerning “talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack.”

The watchdog famously found in 2014 that the “talking points” that provided the basis for Susan Rice’s false statements about the attack were created by the Obama White House. The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit led directly to the disclosure of the Clinton email system in 2015.

Judge Lamberth has called the unsecure email system “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.”

“Discovery up until this point has brought to light a noteworthy amount of relevant information, but Judicial Watch requests an additional round of discovery, and understandably so. With each passing round of discovery, the court is left with more questions than answers,” he has said

The court found Clinton’s prior testimony, mostly through written sworn answers, was not sufficient.

“The court has considered the numerous times in which Secretary Clinton said she could not recall or remember certain details in her prior interrogatory answer,” Judicial Watch said. “In a deposition, it is more likely that plaintiff’s counsel could use documents and other testimony to attempt to refresh her recollection. And so, to avoid the unsatisfying and inefficient outcome of multiple rounds of fruitless interrogatories and move this almost six-year-old case closer to its conclusion, Judicial Watch will be permitted to clarify and further explore Secretary Clinton’s answers in person and immediately after she gives them. The court agrees with Judicial Watch – it is time to hear directly from Secretary Clinton.”

Clinton’s lawyers contend the case is moot, that there are no answers to be obtained, that all of Clinton’s information already is available and that the lower court’s order is “inappropriate, unnecessary, and a clear abuse of discretion.”

Additionally, as a “high-ranking” official, Clinton should be exempt, the filing said.

Dozens of highly sensitive classified materials were sent to and from Clinton through the private and unsecure email system. The FBI said the private system was vulnerable to compromise by hackers outside the United States and by foreign intelligence operatives.

Lamberth also has encouraged Judicial Watch to “shake this tree” for evidence and warned the State Department, “There is no FOIA exemption for political expedience, nor is there one for bureaucratic incompetence.”

Clinton eventually turned over to the federal government some 33,000 emails from her private server, but she didn’t allow the government to have another 30,000, alleging they were “private.”

A letter sent to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed a federal investigation found 38 current and former State Department officials violated government email regulations by using Clinton’s private system.

Judicial Watch says it already has learned:

• John Hackett, former director of information programs and services (IPS), testified under oath that he had raised concerns that Clinton’s staff may have “culled out 30,000” of the secretary’s “personal” emails without following strict National Archives standards. He also believed there was interference with the formal FOIA review process related to the classification of Clinton’s Benghazi-related emails.
• Heather Samuelson, Clinton’s White House liaison at the State Department, and later Clinton’s personal lawyer, admitted under oath that she was granted immunity by the Department of Justice in June 2016.
• Justin Cooper, former aide to President Bill Clinton and Clinton Foundation employee who registered the domain name of the unsecure clintonemail.com server that Clinton used while serving as secretary of state, testified he worked with Huma Abedin, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, to create the non-government email system.
• In interrogatory responses, E.W. Priestap, assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division, stated that the agency found Clinton email records in the Obama White House.
• Jacob Sullivan, Clinton’s senior advisor and deputy chief of staff when she was secretary of state, testified that both he and Clinton used her unsecure non-government email system to conduct official State Department business.
• Eric Boswell, former assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, testified that Clinton was warned twice against using unsecure BlackBerrys and personal emails to transmit classified material.