A top Hillary Clinton aide is at the center of a lawsuit filed by a government watchdog group , which claims the U.S. State Department hid emails it was required to hand over as part of a Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) lawsuit . On Wednesday Daily Mail Online reported that Huma Abedin , a former Clinton deputy chief of staff and a member of her inner circle , had a private address on the now-infamous email server Clinton kept at her Chappaqua , New York home and used exclusively while she was in office . One day later Judicial Watch , a center-right group known for blanketing Washington with FOIA requests , has demanded that a federal court reopen a case it agreed to drop last year because Abedin 's emails were never properly searched . Chris Farrell , the group 's research and investigations director , told Daily Mail Online on Thursday that nine more closed cases could be reopened in light of Clinton 's email-gate scandal . SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS AND THE LEGAL PETITION . MOTHER FIGURE : Former State Department Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Huma Abedin ( right ) traveled with Hillary Clinton and was seen as one of her closest aides . Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had an email address on the former secretary of state 's private server , judging from records maintained by Lexis-Nexis . In all , Judicial Watch has filed 18 FOIA lawsuits against the State Department , 'all of which are being carefully considered in light of Mrs. Clinton ’ s and the department ’ s misconduct and misrepresentations , ' Farrell said . 'More strong legal action will follow . Stay tuned , ' he added . At the time the Abedin lawsuit was wending its way through federal court , the State Department said in writing that it had exhaustively searched its archives and provided everything Judicial Watch asked for . But with the revelation of a separate email address , the group is demanding a second bite at the apple . Judge Emmit Sullivan in Washington , D.C. is expected to grant the request : Judicial Watch writes in its filing that the State Department wo n't fight it . State 'does not oppose reopening the case in this particular circumstance , ' the legal filing says . According to federal court rules , a lawsuit can be reopened due to 'fraud , ... misrepresentation , or misconduct by an opposing party . ' In its filing , Judicial Watch wrote that the State Department 'represented to Judicial Watch that the records of the Executive Secretariat had been searched . ' Tom Fitton , the group 's president , said there was misconduct at the State Department and demanded 'immediate court action ' 'At no point did the State Department inform Judicial Watch that the Secretary ’ s emails and the emails of Ms. Abedin and other high level officials could not be searched , ' the court petition reads . 'These were misrepresentations . ' 'Had Judicial Watch known that the State Department ’ s search excluded Secretary Clinton ’ s emails and the emails of Ms. Abedin and other high level officials , Judicial Watch would not have stipulated to the dismissal of this case . ' Tom Fitton , the group 's president , said Thursday in a statement that 'Hillary Clinton ’ s misconduct and the resulting fraud by the State Department disrupted and ended our federal FOIA lawsuit about Huma Abedin , one of Hillary Clinton ’ s closest political associates . ' 'Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration concealed records and lied to obstruct a federal court and Judicial Watch from finding out about the secret emails , ' he claimed . 'Time is of the essence . Immediate court action is imperative to retrieve , recover and secure these public records from Mrs . Clinton . ' Clinton said durign a press conference on Tuesday in New York City that she had deleted more than 30,000 'personal ' emails from her 'clintonemail.com ' server after determining with no outside input that they were unrelated to her government work . She said nothing about other accounts on the server , including Abedin 's . The Federal Records Act puts responsibility for archiving public records on the heads of government agencies – a group that included Clinton while she ran the Obama administration 's State Department for four years . 'Secretary Clinton plainly violated her own legal obligations , ' Judicial Watch said in a press release . 'Doing so was misconduct . ' There 's no indication that Thursday 's legal petition was a response to Daily Mail Online 's expose a day earlier . But the State Department 's Office of General Counsel could soon have its hands full . The Associated Press said Wednesday that it , too had sued the agency to force the release of emails and other government documents from the years Clinton was at the helm . Some of the AP 's requests and demands dated back five years . And the State Department 's Office of Inspector General found this week that it had retained just 61,000 emails , out of more than 1 billion sent by the agency 's employees , in 2011 – in the middle of Clinton 's tenure . Motion to Reopen Huma Abedin Case uploaded by DailyMail.com .
Huma Abedin has been Hillary Clinton 's closest aide for years and is seen in Washington as the former secretary of state 's adopted daughter . MailOnline reported Wednesday that Abedin had a private address on an email server controlled by Clinton but never indexed by the State Dept . Judicial Watch agreed to drop a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over Abedin 's records last year after State said it had handed everything over . Court rules say the suit can be reopened for 'fraud ... misrepresentation or misconduct ' ; Judicial Watch filed papers on Thursday . State Department 'does not oppose reopening the case , ' according to the new legal petition , and there could be at least NINE more like it .