Obama-appointed judge throws out case on Clinton over Benghazi deaths and emails

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In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson tossed out the wrongful death claims as well as allegations that Clinton essentially slandered the parents of the deceased by contradicting accounts the parents gave of events related to their children's deaths.

Jackson dismissed the wrongful death portion of the suit on technical grounds

For the purposes of the suit, "it...does not matter whether Secretary Clinton used a private email server lawfully or unlawfully.

The judge also rejected the defamation claims, concluding that Clinton's public statements that the family members' were "wrong" about what she'd said to them about the motivation for the attack were not the equivalent of saying they lied. In short, Jackson concluded that Clinton was saying that the parents could be mistaken in their recollection, particularly given the impact of their children's deaths.

"Secretary Clinton did not refer to plaintiffs as liars," Jackson noted. "Plaintiffs may find the candidate’s statements in her own defense to be 'unpleasant or offensive,' but Secretary Clinton did not portray plaintiffs as 'odious, infamous, or ridiculous....' To the contrary, the statements portray plaintiffs as normal parents, grieving over the tragic loss of their loved ones."

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