Like a game of whack-a-mole, Hillary Clinton’s secret email server scandal continues this week as the former secretary of state has just one more day to explain to a federal court why she shouldn’t have to testify under oath about the system.

On Friday, the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch submitted a request for permission to depose Clinton, along with two other current and former government officials, as part of the ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit looking into aide Huma Abedin’s special employment arrangement with the State Department.

‘As the primary driving force behind and principal user of the clintonemail.com system, however, Secretary Clinton’s testimony is crucial to understanding how and why the system was created and operated,’ the brief argued, calling Clinton a ‘indispensable witness.’

At the heart of the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit is Abedin’s double-dipping job arrangement.

In the spring of 2012, Abedin went from being Clinton’s deputy chief of staff at the State Department to a senior advisor role, a job with a ‘special government employee’ status that allowed Abedin to bring in outside income as well.

The longtime Clinton aide, who now serves as the likely Democratic nominee’s vice chairwoman of the campaign, then worked for the Clinton-affiliated global consulting firm Teneo. The court gave Clinton, along with two other officials – Clarence Finney and John Bentel – until Tuesday to respond. Abedin also did work for the Clinton Foundation.

The lawsuit originated in September 2013, with the conservative watchdog seeking documentation about Abedin’s special arrangement.

By February 2014 the State Department assured the group that it had given them all the necessary documents and so Judicial Watch agreed to dismiss the lawsuit a month later.

A year went by and in March 2015, Judicial Watch asked that the lawsuit be reopened in light of the revelation that Clinton and other aides used private email accounts.

‘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 associations,’ Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said at the time.

‘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,’ Fitton continued.

‘Time is of the essence. Immediate court action is imperative to retrieve, recover and secure these public records from Mrs. Clinton.’

In February 2016, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan granted the group the right to question under oath the former secretary of state’s closest aides, including Abedin who was deposed last month.

He also opened the door to Clinton being interrogated herself.

‘There’s been a constant drip, drip, drip of declarations. When does it stop?’ Sullivan said. ‘This case is about the public’s right to know,’ added the judge, who was appointed by Clinton’s husband President Bill Clinton.

By mid-May Judicial Watch and the Department of State had agreed upon a discovery plan with a number of high-level Clinton aides to be questioned under oath.

Beyond Abedin, Clinton’s former chief of staff Cheryl Mills testified, but because she acted as Clinton’s counsel after her State Department role, Mills’ lawyer could use attorney-client privilege to get the aide out of answering some of the questions.

IT staffer Bryan Pagliano declined to answer questions posed by the group’s lawyers. He invoked the Fifth Amendment 125 different, consecutive times, according to CNN. Pagliano is the staffer that the Justice Department gave immunity to in order to get information about the email system in a separate federal probe.

Last week the Justice Department closed its case against Clinton, upon recommendation from the FBI, with director James Comey calling Clinton ‘extremely careless,’ but adding that no reasonable prosecutor would pursue a criminal case.

Judicial Watch cited some of Comey’s comments in the request, noting how the FBI director said there were several thousand work-related emails discovered as part of the investigation that Clinton’s attorneys did not initially turn in.

The group reminded the court that this goes against previous statements that Clinton had made.

‘Hillary Clinton can answer questions about her email practices that no other witness can,’ stated Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. ‘Her testimony will help the court determine if, how, and why FOIA was thwarted by the Clinton email system.’