Court orders release of Benghazi-related emails from Clinton

A federal judge has ordered the State Department to turn over eight paragraphs of redacted materials from Hillary Clinton's emails which are likely to shed more light into what the Obama administration knew about the Benghazi attack two days after it occurred.

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The conservative watchdog Judicial Watch announced the judge's March ruling on Friday, after they sued for complete access to the redacted emails which the State Department had previously redacted using what's known as the "deliberative process" exemption.

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However, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson reviewed the documents directly, and said the exemption didn't fit the case. Judicial Watch believes the redaction of the document wasn't a mistake, but part of a "deliberate effort by the State Department to protect Clinton and the agency by avoiding identifying emails on Clinton's unofficial, non-secure email server as classified."

The emails – originally stored on Clinton's unofficial server — were sent on Sept. 13, 2012, less than two days after the attacks began in Libya, and the subject line reads, "FW: Quick Summary of POTUS Calls to Presidents of Libya and Egypt."

People included in the email thread were top deputies in the State Department at the time, such as Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough.

Because the State Department had been in court arguing against the release of the emails in recent months in which the Trump administration was in power, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton used the findings to appeal to the president.

"Does President Trump know his State and Justice Departments are still trying to provide cover for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama?" Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton asked in a press release.

Earlier this week, Judicial Watch released a new batch of emails from an account of Clinton's long-time aide Huma Abedin, which Judicial Watch claims offers more proof that Clinton was sending and receiving classified information from her home server which wasn't secured by the government.