Bryan Pagliano, the IT specialist who managed Hillary Clinton’s email server at the State Department, no longer works as an outside contractor for the agency, a position he’s held since both he and Clinton left their government jobs in 2013.
The news, announced by State Department spokesman John Kirby on Thursday, comes a day after The Washington Post reported that Pagliano was granted immunity by the FBI in exchange for his cooperation with the investigation into Clinton’s server. (RELATED: DOJ Grants Immunity To Hillary’s Email Server Technician)
Pagliano set up and managed Clinton’s private email server, which housed thousands of classified emails.
Soon after leaving his position as a special advisor in State’s Bureau of Information Resources Management in Feb. 2013, Pagliano began working for a global IT company called Gartner. It is unclear if he contracted with the State Department solely through Gartner or if he worked for another company or independently. Whatever the case, Pagliano was working as a contractor for the agency as recently as September. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said during a press briefing then that Pagliano was still working as a contractor. That was also the same month that Pagliano invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a hearing with the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
It’s unclear who severed ties with whom or if Pagliano’s job change had anything to do with the FBI investigation. Kirby refused to provide details during Thursday’s press briefing.
In refusing to provide details about when and why Pagliano and State parted ways, Kirby initially cited privacy concerns.
“I’m not able, again, for privacy restrictions to go beyond that,” he told reporters.
But when challenged by Associated Press reporter Matt Lee about that explanation, Kirby acknowledged that his silence may have had more to do with the ongoing investigation.
“It may not be that there are privacy regulations necessarily, but the fact that there are ongoing reviews and investigations,” Kirby said.
“I’m not an expert on every privacy regulation here, but I’ve gone about as far as I can,” he added.
Gartner did not immediately respond to questions about Pagliano’s work with the company.