WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton said under oath in a court filing Thursday that she can't recall key details about her use of a private email server or she refused to answer questions about it posed by a legal group.
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Clinton lawyer David Kendall provided the Democratic presidential nominee's sworn responses to 25 written questions submitted by Judicial Watch. The group has filed multiple lawsuits seeking copies of government documents from Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.
Clinton's answers provided no new information. In her responses, Clinton used some variation of "does not recall" at least 21 times.
For example, Clinton was asked when she decided to use her private email account to conduct government business and whom she consulted in making that decision.
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Clinton said she recalled making the decision in early 2009, but she "does not recall any specific consultations regarding the decision."
Asked whether she was warned that using a private email account conflicted with federal record-keeping rules, Clinton responded that "she does not recall being advised, cautioned, or warned, she does not recall that it was ever suggested to her, and she does not recall participating in any communication, conversation, or meeting in which it was discussed."
Judicial Watch had sought to depose Clinton in person about the creation of the private server in the basement of her New York home. In August, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan instead ordered the Democratic presidential nominee to respond to the group's questions in writing.
In addition to her inability to recall the information requested, Clinton entered various legal objections to the formation or wording of 18 of the 25 questions. She also filed eight general objections to the process under which the questions were being asked.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the group's lawyers will review Clinton's responses.
"Mrs. Clinton's refusal to answer many of the questions in a clear and straightforward manner further reflects disdain for the rule of law," Fitton said.
Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman protested the process in a statement Thursday night. He said Sullivan's denial of his group's requests for an oral deposition "cleverly allowed Hillary Clinton ... to stonewall giving responsive and meaningful answers."
Klayman continued, "Now, even if motions to compel complete and responsive answers are filed, they will not be decided for some time, and Judge Sullivan will have run out the clock -- paving the way for Hillary Clinton ... to easily win the presidency."
Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said Clinton has answered the same questions in multiple settings for over a year, and her answers Thursday "are entirely consistent with what she has said many times before."
More emails leaked
Separately, nearly 2,000 more emails hacked from Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta were published Thursday by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.
A November 2014 email hacked from Clinton's future campaign manager Robby Mook to Podesta showed that the campaign tried to move the Illinois presidential primary to a later date.
The email said a contest held after the Super Tuesday primaries might stop momentum for a moderate Republican candidate and emphasizing that Clinton and her husband "won't forget" a political favor.
Mook wrote that officials in President Barack Obama's administration should use their connections in the president's home state to try to push back the March 15 Illinois primary by at least a month.
"The overall goal is to move the IL primary out of mid-March, where they are currently a lifeline to a moderate Republican candidate after the mostly southern Super Tuesday," Mook wrote. "IL was a key early win for [GOP presidential candidate Mitt] Romney" in 2012.
While the request would come from Obama, the president and former Illinois senator, "the key point is that this is not an Obama ask, but a Hillary ask," Mook said.
The Illinois Legislature moved up the 2008 primary to benefit its Obama in his bid for the White House. The primary was held in early February that year to give Illinois more influence, but then moved back to its traditional date in mid-March.
Her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, told ABC's The View on Thursday that the FBI and director of national intelligence have said "the Russian government is behind" the hack, adding that "anybody that would hack to try to destabilize an election, you can't automatically assume that everything in all of these documents are even real."
Questions were raised on social media about the speed with which Russia Today, a news site funded by the Russian government, tweeted about Podesta's emails, the latest in a series of hacked emails published by WikiLeaks. The group said the emails were visible on its website "well before" it started tweeting them.
Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Daly, Mary Clare Jalonick, Maria Danilova and John O'Connor of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/14/2016