Hillary Clinton’s personal IT guy was placed on the highest pay scale for federal government employees when he worked at the State Department, available records show.
Bryan Pagliano earned around $140,000 per year and was classified as a GS-15 in his job as a special advisor and deputy chief information officer at the State Department, according to the website FedsDataCenter.com, which maintains a database of federal employee pay.
Prior to joining the State Department in May 2009, Pagliano worked as the director of information technology on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He reportedly helped set up and maintain Clinton’s private email server, which was registered to her home in Chappaqua, N.Y.
Clinton used the server during her presidential campaign and upgraded it when she became secretary of state.
The extent of Pagliano’s work on Clinton’s email server is still unknown, and the IT worker intends to keep it that way. Earlier this week he informed the House Select Committee on Benghazi that he will plead the Fifth Amendment if he is called to testify about his work on Clinton’s behalf. (RELATED: Chuck Todd: Aide Pleading The Fifth Doesn’t Look Good)
Pagliano left the State Department when Clinton did, in February 2013. The agency did not return a request for comment about the nature of Pagliano’s work under Clinton.
The watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the State Department earlier this week for records pertaining to Pagliano’s work on Clinton’s server. The group is challenging the claim, made by Clinton and others, that her server was “private.”
“Mrs. Clinton’s argument that her ‘server’ was private fails on many levels, especially if Mr. Pagliano, a State Department employee, was paid by taxpayers to take care of it,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement.
In a video posted to YouTube in 2011, Pagliano is seen discussing the roll-out of various State Department tech initiatives, including projects to allow diplomats to work remotely.
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