WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department has been ordered to search for more emails then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have sent or received from her aides at their state.gov addresses over the 2012 Benghazi attack, it was revealed on Thursday.
Federal Judge Amit Mehta, nominated by former President Barack Obama, has ruled that the State Department should search the state.gov emails as well after conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch (JW) filed a new lawsuit for related Benghazi emails.
"BREAKING: JW wins big court ruling that may finally result in truth about Benghazi & Clinton's involvement in it," the group tweeted on Thursday.
The State Department argued that a search of the state.gov emails is unlikely to turn up anything additional, but the group argued that the State Department's search of her emails wasn't good enough, saying only external sources were searched.
"This matter is a far cry from a typical FOIA case. Secretary Clinton used a private email server, located in her home, to transmit and receive work-related communications during her tenure as secretary of state." Mehta said. The judge signed the order on Tuesday requiring a status report by Sept. 22.
Clinton's emails were a key subject of controversy during her 2016 presidential campaign after it was revealed that she used a private email server during her stay at the State Department.
