The State Department has released the personnel file for Bryan Pagliano, the IT worker who managed Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
The document, which The Daily Caller obtained last week through a lawsuit filed against the State Department on its behalf by the watchdog group Cause of Action, confirms that Pagliano was a type of political appointee known as a Schedule C employee. In that capacity, the White House ultimately approved his job, which granted him the official title of information technology specialist for policy and planning.
Pagliano’s involvement with Clinton, her server, and the State Department took on renewed significance Wednesday after it was reported that he is cooperating with FBI investigators in exchange for immunity. (RELATED: Justice Department Grants Immunity To Hillary Clinton’s Email Server Technician)
FBI investigators are looking into whether classified information was mishandled on Clinton’s server. Clinton sent and received thousands of emails containing classified information. Her aides also sent her nearly two dozen messages containing “top secret” information. In September, Pagliano exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a hearing of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
As a Schedule C employee, Pagliano was vetted by State’s Office of White House Liaison, where longtime Clinton insider Heather Samuelson held a top position.
Samuelson, who, like Pagliano, worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, is the same Clinton insider who was put in charge of sifting through the former secretary of state’s emails before they were turned over to the State Department.
Clinton turned over about 30,000 emails in December 2014. A similar amount were withheld because they were of a personal nature, Clinton has claimed.
While Clinton’s critics have questioned that claim, one powerful State Department official who has accepted it at face value — at least publicly — is Patrick Kennedy, the agency’s under secretary for management.
In his position, Kennedy oversaw the Office of White House Liaison, which vetted and approved Pagliano.
Whether Kennedy knew that Pagliano helped with Clinton’s server is still unknown. It’s also not clear whether he knew of the server itself or what it was used for. A State Department spokesman has said that Kennedy claims he was not aware that Clinton was hosted her emails on the device. (RELATED: State Dept. Says Top Official Didn’t Know About Hillary’s Server, Even Though He Was On Email Discussing It)
But Kennedy was included on an August 2011 email chain with Clinton aides and other State Department officials in which Clinton’s server was openly discussed.
Finding out if Kennedy knew of the server and of Pagliano’s secondary role at State is key to understanding whether Clinton acted on her own to establish the unprecedented email system. While Clinton has claimed that using a private server was not forbidden by the State Department, her critics have said it raises questions about her judgement, especially since her use of a private server likely made her more vulnerable to foreign hackers.
A State Department official told TheDC that while Kennedy — as under secretary for management — does oversee the White House liaison, he is not responsible for day-to-day management of the office.
Pagliano did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The tech worker’s personnel file provides few other clues about his hiring or his role as Clinton’s email server maintenance man. The document shows that he was hired as a GS-15, which has been reported. His starting salary was $132,914.
At some point after his hire, Pagliano transitioned from deputy CIO to special adviser, according to the 2012 Plum Book, which lists all top federal government officials in office after each presidential election.
It is unclear how or if Pagliano’s workload changed along with his title. His old position is now filled by Glen Johnson, a longtime federal employee.
This article initially misstated Pagliano’s official position at the State Department. He was hired as an information technology specialist for policy and planning, not as deputy chief information officer for operations.