(CBS News) — The State Department has released a number of emails from former key Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin that were found on the laptop of her then-husband and disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner. The release was a result of a lawsuit by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that specializes in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and lawsuits.
The State Department webpage appeared to not be working on Friday afternoon, but Judicial Watch said it was able to pull some of those emails. Much of what they obtained includes redacted information, while other content includes things like Clinton’s daily schedules.
The FBI first became aware of the emails because of an investigation entirely separate from its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. In September, Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to sending obscene material to a 15-year-old girl.
The discovery of Clinton-related emails during the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server led to the October surprise announcement from then-FBI Director James Comey that additional Clinton-related emails had been discovered that would need to be reviewed in the case. The announcement sent shockwaves through the political world so close to the November election between Clinton and Donald Trump.
Weiner was forced to resign from Congress for accidentally posting an inappropriate image of himself to Twitter in 2011. Then, when he attempted a run for mayor in 2013, he lost the race after he admitted that he sent more salacious messages.
Abedin, who filed for divorce earlier this year, was a top aide to Clinton for years. When Comey testified before Congress in May, he said believed Abedin would often forward emails to Weiner to print out for Clinton.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called the email release a “major victory.”
“This is a major victory,” Fitton said in a statement. “After years of hard work in federal court, Judicial Watch has forced the State Department to finally allow Americans to see these public documents. It will be in keeping with our past experience that Abedin’s emails on Weiner’s laptop will include classified and other sensitive materials. That these government docs were on Anthony Weiner’s laptop dramatically illustrates the need for the Justice Department to finally do a serious investigation of Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s obvious violations of law.”
