The judge, Emmet G. Sullivan of United States District Court in Washington, has been sharply critical of the State Department’s handling of the email affair over the last year.
“It just boggles the mind that the State Department allowed this circumstance to arise in the first place,” said Judge Sullivan, who was appointed to the Federal District Court in 1994 by President Clinton.
The judge called the email episode “very, very, very troubling.”
Mr. Lukens, a former ambassador to Senegal, was the leadoff witness in the Judicial Watch depositions. He served as executive director of the State Department’s executive secretariat under Mrs. Clinton until 2011, providing her with logistical, administrative and travel support. Judicial Watch said it was seeking his testimony because records that have already been released indicated that he had emailed Ms. Mills and others about Mrs. Clinton’s private email server.
Thomas Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, who took part in Mr. Lukens’s deposition, said afterward that he could not discuss the substance of the testimony because of the ground rules set by Judge Sullivan.
But Mr. Fitton predicted that once the testimony is publicly released – perhaps as early as next week – it would show “why the State Department and Mrs. Clinton have slow-rolled this and withheld a complete explanation of what went on with her email system. What we learned is going to be embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton and the administration – maybe more than embarrassing.”
He refused to elaborate, citing the court’s restrictions.
After the deposition, State Department lawyers invoked a procedure to review Mr. Lukens’s testimony for three days before deciding whether to ask the judge to keep any parts of it confidential for security or legal reasons.
The State Department declined to comment on the deposition.
“As is standard, the State Department does not comment on matters in litigation,” a department spokesman said.
The Clinton campaign had no immediate comment on the deposition, and Mr. Lukens could not be reached for comment.
