"We approach things with the notion that ultimately the government lawyer is not out just to win the case at any cost, but to help the court in seeing that justice is done. Klayman's 1996 Filegate case seeks $90 million in damages for individuals whose FBI files were mishandled by the White House.In the course of this 4-year-old lawsuit, Lamberth has allowed Klayman to explore several other subjects in an attempt to show a pattern of White House privacy violations. "I do expect more of government lawyers, but I think all judges do," Lamberth said. You can't have a thin skin.
He knows prevaricators and people who fool around with the system and people who are dilatory and charlatans. "It is a joke. He has interrogated a host of Clinton allies, and the connection between his questions and the FBI files is not always clear.Klayman grilled former aide Paul Begala, for example, about a Begala quip from a recent speech: "There are some good Republicans out there--which is not something I would have known just from reading their FBI files." "The lawyers did not act with the alacrity he wanted, but it was outrageous the way he sanctioned people," said one attorney involved in the case, who asked not to be named.Lamberth conceded that he holds government lawyers to a higher standard.
More than its counterparts across the nation, the D.C. court handles cases of constitutional importance. The flamboyant 56-year-old Texan in recent years has aimed a series of well-publicized jabs at the Clinton administration--penalizing high-level aides, challenging presidential initiatives, questioning administration motives and lambasting Clinton officials in cutting, colorful language.Lamberth's reputation for nettling the president, who also faces a humiliating recommendation by an Arkansas disciplinary panel that he lose his law license because of untruthful testimony in the Those familiar with Lamberth, including many of the lawyers who practice before him, say he is highly suspicious of the government and appears to strongly dislike the Clinton administration. Joseph diGenova, a Clinton critic and Lamberth's former boss. Lamberth insisted he had no other option legally, but others involved dispute this. But my reputation bothers me. "It comes with the territory, especially if you have cases like I've had," he said. But Lamberth denied the request, allowing Klayman to continue his investigation.Lamberth's critics say the judge is letting Klayman act as a sort of mini-independent counsel. "Klayman insisted all his interrogations have had a solid legal basis. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered Hillary to sit under oath for a deposition by Judicial Watch, a conservative group that sued over her private email server.This is bad news for Hillary Clinton and she will be furious. The order to answer questions from lawyers for the conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch pours yet… The case has dragged on five years and spawned 31 volumes in the D.C. federal courthouse, as Klayman has questioned one Commerce Department official after another.In this case, too, Lamberth has often granted Klayman's requests to delve into ever broader areas. Where others see bureaucratic foul-ups, Lamberth is more likely to see wrongdoing, according to some of those who appear before him.Few would deny that the government is guilty of serious ineptitude and corner-cutting in some of Lamberth's cases. He has issued a striking series of tough decisions against the administration. A federal judge Monday ordered Hillary Clinton to testify at a deposition for a lawsuit related to her use of a private email computer server for official business while working as secretary of State in the Obama administration. "Few cases have provided as much fuel for Lamberth's detractors or his defenders, as two lawsuits filed by Larry Klayman, an ardent Clinton critic who heads the watchdog group Judicial Watch. Fiesty U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth came out swinging in his opening remarks at a hearing last Friday regarding the 2014 Judicial Watch (JW) FOIA request which ultimately exposed Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in the spring of 2015. "The ruling on the Privacy Act was outrageous.