A Bill Clinton-appointed federal judge ruled that Americans can’t watch the depositions taken in Hillary Clinton’s e-mail case because it might hurt her election chances – but, that’s not stopping one filmmaker from bringing the proceedings to life in a new video series.
Petitioned to keep the film of one witness’s testimony secret, the judge took the opportunity to ban all witnesses’ depositions from the public eye:
“U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a request from former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills that the deposition recordings be kept from the public because of the potential they could be used for partisan purposes or perhaps used in attack ads against Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination."
“In a brief order Thursday afternoon, Sullivan acted on his own initiative to broaden Mills' request, putting off limits the videos of all depositions in the case.”
But, now filmmaker Phelim McAleer has released the first of his five-part series of videos reenacting the highlights of the depositions, using actors and the official transcripts to bring the confessions, accusations and exchanges to life.
The first film highlights the questioning of Cheryl Mills who worked with the Clintons for almost 30 years and was Hillary's Chief of Staff while she was Secretary of State. The last will reenact Huma Abedin's deposition.
"Cheryl Mills' deposition last week is a masterclass in Clintonian evasions," McAleer said. "She said a version of 'I don't know' or 'I don't recall' 189 times during her deposition. Her team of lawyers objected to questions more than 200 times."
Veteran actress E.P. McKnight plays Cheryl Mills in the first of five films McAleer plans to release -- ending with a reenactment of Clinton associate Huma Abedin's deposition at the end of the month.
McAleer says the film project was inspired by his belief in democracy:
"I was shocked when the judge caved to Hillary's [aide’s] demands that the videos be suppressed. This is dangerous for democracy and something that should not stand. Now with these films, people will be able to see the highlights of each deposition--the evasions and cover-ups that appear to be going on. There should be no special treatment for the elites.”
While McAleer’s video merely provide highlights from the Mills deposition, the full transcript is available online.
Editor's Add-On: This same judge is now being petitioned by the Justice Department to prevent the disclosure of the immunity deal of one of Hillary Clinton's former technology advisors to be deposed in the Judicial Watch case:
"Lawyers for the Justice Department are fighting the disclosure of an immunity deal the government reached with Bryan Pagliano, a former technology adviser to Hillary Clinton.
"The DOJ lawyers submitted a motion to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan on Friday, arguing that such a disclosure could hurt the FBI probe into Clinton’s private email server.
"The filing argues that the judge can use his “inherent discretion” to keep under wraps the immunity agreement, if the court demands to view it as part of a Freedom of Information Act suit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative group."