The former aide that helped set up the private email server used by Hillary Rodham Clinton will, according to the New York Times, invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination before the congressional committee investigating the matter. Bryan Pagliano worked for Clinton in her failed presidential campaign in 2008. He was then brought into the State Department and helped her create a server separate from the secured State Department system so she could control her own emails. If this news was not bad enough, the Washington Post is reporting that Clinton herself wrote and transmitted classified emails on her unsecured server. If that is not bad enough, Fox News is reporting that Clinton staff members may have changed classified markings on documents to hide their classified status.
Pagliano’s lawyer has notified the congressional panel that Pagliano will refuse to answer questions on the matter in fear of self-incrimination as is his right. He could still be called to force him to invoke in person. He could also be given immunity to force him to testify. He was the information technology director for Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and then worked at the State Department as an adviser and special projects manager for its chief technology officer. He then left the State Department in February 2013 when Clinton left. Clinton’s use of campaign associates for the server has raised eyebrows, particularly given recent reports that the State Department IT people did not know of the use of a personal server by Clinton and she used an iPad extensively that was not secured or approved.
The Clinton campaign issued a statement that Pagliano’s invoking the Fifth is “both understandable and disappointing to us, because we believe he has every reason to be transparent about his I.T. assistance.”
“We had hoped Bryan would also agree to answer any questions from the committee and had recently encouraged him to grant the committee’s request for an interview. . . Bryan is an utter professional and a wonderful young man who does not live in the public eye and understandably may not wish to be drawn into a political spectacle.”
The question will now become one of immunity. The problem with investigations of this kind is that people can trip criminal wires with false statements to investigators — that can then be charged separately as a violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001. That can then put them into a precarious category for the Clinton campaign and folks looking for deals in cooperation with investigators. In the meantime, the scandal bleeds into the campaign. Even with the controversial delay of debates and the limitation of debates that Clinton will have to face, the scandal is clearly having an impact on Clinton with her highest unfavorable ratings since her last presidential campaign.
He could use Hillary’s favorite answer “I don’t remember.”
Colin Powell did it. Rice did it. They did it through google and didn’t even have a private server they could control.
This is just a Republican witch hunt. Clinton’s worth will be illustrated in how she navigates this slime.
Thus, Clinton paid “Perfect Privacy, LLC,” a company that takes over registrant duties and enters its own meaningless Florida contact information into domain databases to hide the true owner, after she left the State Department. -from the following article
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/02/exclusive-bill-clintons-top-adviser-ran-hillarys-email-server/
“Bill Clinton’s senior adviser Justin Cooper was the man responsible for running the email network, according to archived Internet records. Cooper also works as a top fundraiser for the Clinton Foundation. He also serves as a senior adviser to Teneo Holdings, a private corporate advisory and investment banking firm founded by former Bill Clinton adviser Doug Band. Cooper has never worked for the State Department.
“Cooper was listed as the registrant for Hillary Clinton’s private email domain clintonemail.com when Hillary Clinton left the State Department. Cooper was also listed as the administrative and technical contact for the domain.
“Cooper was listed as the registrant as recently as January 30, 2013. Thus, Clinton paid “Perfect Privacy, LLC,” a company that takes over registrant duties and enters its own meaningless Florida contact information into domain databases to hide the true owner, after she left the State Department.”
“Perfect Privacy”, indeed. (:
Reblogged this on Finding Truth In an Illusory World.
I see the VP is in Florida testing the campaign waters with a Jewish group. I wonder if he’s doing so for a serious run on his own or as a fullback to protect Hillary by trashing Bernie on an end run around him and the GOP farm products.
I can’t even begin to imagine all the stink behind what’s being reported. On a non-related note, I’m grateful for the story yesterday that gave me my new name.
One needs to consider the nature of the self-incriminzation that concerns him. He may be quite certain that Clinton did nothing wrong, and that he did nothing wrong on her behalf. He may simply be terrified that he might inadvertantly say something to Congress that is false, be it consequential or incosequential, on purpose or by accident, and be imprisoned for lying to Congress.
I don’t trust Clinton at all, but I trust Congress even less. The abuse of power in which they indulge themselves is mind boggling. I would be utterly unwilling to subject myself to their inane, self serving, asinine and abusive interrogation. The risk self incrimination in the form of being charged with lying to them is very high.
Politicians, in both camps, love to surround themselves w/ “yes” sycophants. You can tell if you read the emails already released, that Hillary has more “yes” people than most politicians. And, that is one of the reasons she’s in this mess. But remember, Obama is exposed as well. He sent HIS yes woman, Susan Rice, out to 5 TV shows spreading the absurd lie that the Benghazi attack was about some lame video released about Islam. This is a high stakes game.
The stink of gefilte fish comes to mind.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/01/the-story-behind-the-funniest-e-mail-hilary-clinton-has-ever-sent/
“The server fracas isn’t Watergate, yet, but the Democratic front-runner is starting to sound a little like Richard Nixon.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/09/01/hillary-clinton-new-email-released-state-department-column/71504450/
LOL! It’s now being reported a hacker is putting up for sale ALL of Hillary’s emails for $500k. He says they include damning info on Benghazi. “AT THIS POINT, WHAT DOES IT MATTER?”
On a legal technical concern, an immunity grant by one sovereign would not seem to be binding on another sovereignty.
So, fi the federal govt give immunity, what is to stop another jurisdiction from prosecuting the admitted crime?
Drip, drip, drip. This is a high stakes game. Obama is behind this. I would not be surprised if he allowed the AG appoint a special prosecutor. Drip, drip, drip.
From CNN
“Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice both had personal email accounts during their time at the helm of the State Department.
Powell also used personal email to communicate with ambassadors, foreign ministers and his own State Department staff. He also had and used an official State Department email.
Rice also had both a State account and personal email address, but one of her aides told CNN that the former secretary of state “rarely used email during her tenure at State.” And when she did, “her State email was the vehicle for official communication. She did not use personal email for official communication as secretary,” the aide said.
And Rice’s rare use of email may reveal why the Clinton email saga is a much bigger deal. Email is much more widely used today, especially by high-ranking officials, than it was when Rice became secretary of state ten years ago.
But while Powell may have used his personal email address to conduct State Department business, he also used a State Department account, which Clinton did not.
Beyond that, though, Clinton also used an email account that fed through its own server — unlike a personal email account that goes through a service like Gmail or Yahoo, for example — according to an Associated Press report.
And that’s what’s most eyebrow-raising.
Housing her email exchanges on her own server gave Clinton a lot more control over the fate of that correspondence.”
That the Republicans would hypocritically jump on anything to smear Clinton is a given. The Republican party has already proved beyond the need for discussion that they will shut down the government if they don’t get their way, even when they do not have the majority of representatives in Washington. The Republican party has elected its members all the way up to Presidents through smear campaigns.
That this affair of arrogance on the part of Clinton should be blown out of all proportions is to be expected. If it adversely affects her getting elected then America will have again succumbed to its own ignorance and need for a ‘shiny leader’. The proof of Clinton’s worth as President is not to be found in whether or not she used a private server but in how she handles the never ending voracious attacks by the rabid and dysfunctional Republican party. Who would you rather have leading the country, another Bush, a Trump, a Walker, or someone who can navigate this slime.
Immunity? What immunity? There is no immunity from the Clinton thugs, who have silenced others in the past. If he ever does decide to testify, expect to hear of a mysterious suicide on his part.
“That can then put them into a precarious category for the Clinton campaign and folks looking for deals in cooperation with investigators”.
“Bryan is an utter professional and a wonderful young man who does not live in the public eye and understandably may not wish to be drawn into a political spectacle.”
Bryan got good lawyer too. Not going to be scapegoat or fall guy, facing prison time for Hillary. Give him immunity and sing to the FEDs.
Question 1….Did Bryan ever have or hold a top secret government security clearance?
I cannot believe, at one time, I considered voting for her. Shame on her and double shame on me.
The job of President begins with an oath. There is absolutely nothing in Clinton’s resume to suggest she intends on honoring that oath.
To most potential Hilary supporters, government needs to be more open, not more “secure”, in informing the public on what is being done in their name, for what they are being charged billions of $$$, and what policies may be causing people around the world to despise us.
The primary question about Hilary’s competence to be president is how strong or weak she is in standing up to the power of the military-security complex, as President Eisenhower warned that we must do.
Give him immunity and lets get on with this.