The House will hold a hearing Monday to determine why the Department of Justice granted immunity to the technician who destroyed thousands of Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails while they were under congressional subpoena.
Paul Combetta, the Platte River Networks (PRN) technician who scrubbed some 30,000 emails from Clinton’s private server, will testify before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The committee, nor any member of Congress, was aware Combetta had received immunity during the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s email server. News of the grant was broken by The New York Times Sept. 8.
The report prompted committee chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz to send a letter to PRN requiring the company to produce a variety of records pertinent to its stewardship of the Clinton server, as well as information relevant to the ensuing FBI investigation.
“The timeline of events raises questions as to whether the PRN engineer violated federal statutes that prohibit destruction of evidence and obstruction of a congressional investigation, among others, when the engineer erased Secretary Clinton’s email contrary to congressional preservation orders and a subpoena,” the letter reads.
“If there is a reason to withhold the immunity agreement from Congress — and by extension, the people we represent — I cannot think of what it would be,” Rep. Trey Gowdy said in a statement. “I look forward to asking the Bureau about any witnesses who were granted immunity or claimed a privilege preventing them from answering questions.”
Others slated to appear before the committee include Bryan Pagliano, senior adviser for Information Resource Management at the U.S. Department of State and an aide to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, Justin Cooper, a long time Clinton associate, Bill Thornton of PRN, and Datto Inc. CEO Austin McChord.
The committee will convene for a rare evening session to hear from the witnesses.
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