Politics

Senators Again Seek Interview With State Dept. Staffer Who Managed Hillary’s Server

(REUTERS/Gary Cameron)

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Two Republican senators are again seeking an interview with the former State Department staffer who set up Hillary Clinton’s email server manager now that he has been granted immunity by the Justice Department.

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley and Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs chairman [crscore]Ron Johnson[/crscore] sent a letter last week to Bryan Pagliano and his attorneys requesting the sit-down.

Pagliano accepted immunity late last year in exchange for his cooperation with the investigation into whether classified information was mishandled on Clinton’s server. Clinton reportedly paid Pagliano out of her own pocket to manage the server, which was kept at her New York residence and housed more than 2,000 now-classified emails.

Lawmakers’ previous attempts to interview Pagliano have been unsuccessful. His attorneys rejected several interview requests submitted by Grassley and Johnson. And in September, Pagliano invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a hearing of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

But Grassley and Johnson say that now that Pagliano has accepted the immunity deal there is no reason for him to avoid meeting with Congress.

“The privilege is confined to instances in which the witness has reasonable cause to apprehend danger of prosecution based on his answers,” Grassley and Johnson wrote. Napolitano Blasts Hillary Clinton’s Email Defense As A ‘Word Game’

“There is no longer reasonable cause for you to believe that discussing these matters with the relevant oversight committees could result in your prosecution.”

Grassley and Johnson also reintroduced a request they made on Oct. 8 for documents and communications that Pagliano sent from his personal email address, which is hosted on the domain @pagliano.com.

The senators did not request information from the @hillaryclinton.com email address Pagliano continued to use while he worked at the State Department. Documents obtained by The Daily Caller earlier this year show that Pagliano used the account in at least one exchange with Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department.

Mills emailed Pagliano on March 20, 2010 asking for help in recovering data from her personal Blackberry, which she lost. Mills sent now-classified emails on the personal email account that was maintained on that device. (RELATED: Clinton Chief Of Staff Lost Her Personal Blackberry, Which Contained Classified Emails)

Grassley and Johnson also say that while the FBI has interviewed Pagliano about the national security aspects of the Clinton server, it is important to find out if Clinton’s email system served another purpose, such as allowing the former secretary of state to thwart public records requests.

“The Justice Department is now one step closer to getting some much-needed answers. However, this is not just a matter of protecting the sensitive National Security information in some of the emails,” Grassley said in a statement.

“It is also about a systematic effort to avoid freedom of information laws and federal record keeping requirements. The public’s work ought to be public and the records of the government’s business belong to the people, not to powerful political appointees.”

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