Judge: Question Clinton aides

WASHINGTON - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that top aides to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton should be questioned under oath about her use of a private email server as secretary of state, raising new political and legal complications for Clinton.

The ruling granted a request from the conservative group Judicial Watch, which sought testimony from State Department officials and members of Clinton's inner circle to determine whether Clinton's email arrangement thwarted federal open-records laws.

In setting an April 12 deadline for Judicial Watch and the government's lawyers to lay out a plan to proceed, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan created the prospect that key Clinton aides would face questions just as she tries to secure the Democratic nomination and pivot to a hotly contested November general election.

The judge said that months of piecemeal revelations to date about Clinton and the State Department's handling of the email controversy created "at least a 'reasonable suspicion' " that public access to official government records under the federal Freedom of Information Act was undermined.

"There has been a constant drip, drip, drip of declarations. When does it stop?" said Sullivan, a 1994 Clinton appointee who has overseen several politically sensitive FOIA cases. "This case is about the public's right to know," he said.