Clinton Straight Up Ignored Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed By Victims Of Benghazi Attack

Matt Vespa | September 13, 2016 2:10 PM

In August, the families of Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, two of the victims in the Benghazi attack, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. They alleged that Clinton was “personally liable” in their deaths. They also sued Clinton for defamation, negligence, and for “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Well, it should come to no one’s surprise that Hillary straight up ignored this lawsuit, with aides refusing to accept the court summons. You can read the lawsuit here. Now, something has to be done on their end to avoid having a judge rule automatically in favor of the families of Woods and Smith Katie Bo Williams of The Hill has more:

The Democratic presidential nominee was declared in default by the court clerk Friday — a designation that simply means she was served with court documents and that she did not answer the complaint. It is not a finding of liability.

In fact, Clinton’s Secret Service delegation and campaign aides refused to accept the summons, according to court documents.

But Clinton will now have to respond in some way — such as arguing that the default be set aside or moving to dismiss the case entirely — to avoid the possibility that a judge could rule automatically in favor of the plaintiffs.

Her lawyers could also seek an extension that would push her deadline for response past the November election.

Patricia Smith and Charles Woods claim in the suit that the attack that killed their sons, Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, as well as two other Americans, “was directly and proximately caused, at a minimum” by Clinton’s use of a private email server while in office.

[…]

Friday’s declaration of default doesn’t carry any automatic impact — a default judgment, for example, would require a request from the plaintiffs. The court now awaits motion from either party.