FBI turns over 7,000 documents from Weiner laptop in Clinton-tied case

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The FBI has turned over 7,000 new documents from Anthony Weiner’s private laptop to the State Department as part of a watchdog group's lawsuit related to last year's Hillary Clinton email case.

Judicial Watch and State Department representatives appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday over the group's Freedom of Information Act suit seeking Clinton emails from her tenure at the State Department.

It emerged during the hearing that the 7,000 new documents were turned over. The trove is expected to contain some emails sent by Weiner’s estranged wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

In this Sept. 20, 2011 file photo, Huma Abedin, top, deputy chief of staff and aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, during a meeting with leaders for the Open Government Partnership in New York. (AP )

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told Fox News after the hearing that they expect to begin receiving those documents in three months, once the State Department determines whether the Weiner documents are government or personal records.

The State Department was ordered in November to turn over 500 pages of Clinton-related documents a month to Judicial Watch.

But Fitton is not satisfied with the speed of the process, especially now that another 7,000 documents are being added to the pile.

HILLARY CLINTON EMAILS: JUDICIAL WATCH GOING TO COURT FOR NEW EMAILS FROM STATE DEPT. 

“This pushes this out until 2020 and beyond,” Fitton told Fox News after the hearing Thursday. “Production is slow because the legal counsel is a holdover from the Obama administration—the folks that are responsible for slow-rolling this are still here.”

According to Fitton, State Department attorneys blamed the slow “drip” of documents on a lack of resources due to President Trump’s federal hiring freeze and a supposedly “diminished public interest” in the Clinton email case since November.

New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin attend a news conference in New York, July 23, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer/File Photo TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX2NHP1 (REUTERS)

The State Department told Fox News they do not comment on ongoing litigation.

“I can’t imagine the Trump White House is not interested in Clinton emails,” Fitton said. “Six months into the Trump administration and their lawyers are defending Hillary Clinton and the misconduct of the Obama administration.”

Based on the 500-page-per-month rate, Fitton does not expect to receive the Weiner laptop documents in full for more than a year “at best.”

Judicial Watch is seeking emails from Weiner's laptop in order to find out whether Abedin was sharing sensitive government information on another non-government device. The sharing of such information was at the heart of the Clinton email investigation, after it emerged she used a personal server for government business while secretary of state.

The discovery of potentially related emails on Weiner's computer led to the brief reopening of the case shortly before the November election. In May, Weiner, a former New York congressman, pleaded guilty in connection with a sexting case.