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.
Hi NickS!!!
Oh, I have been here all along. Penelope is on vacay though with her stupid boyfriend until Sunday some time. I have just had major internet problems. I upgraded Comcast, then it went out, then I spent hours on the phone, and then got another appointment, then went outside and found a loose connection on the amplifier thingy, so I screwed it back in, and everything worked, sooo I spent another half hour on the phone to cancel the service call, and then 15 minutes later the whole shebang including TV went out. Sooo, I said “Just screw it!!!” and got ATT, who was supposed to come out on a Monday, but then it wasn’t until Friday, and then their little box thingy started going out, and sooo I screwed with that for about a week, until they brought out a new router, which was yesterday.
In my downtime, I became a real live geek and increased my gigs of ram stuff in an old laptop, and downloaded Linux on it, too to run beside Vista. I put in the ram thingies all by myself!!! Sooo, I felt really smart.
Then, I went to work trying to figure out this stomp box thingy for my guitar and now I don’t feel so smart anymore because there are lights all over the place on it, and I don’t know for sure what is going to come out of my guitar until I strum a chord or something. It phasers, and flanges, and delays, and reverbs, and some other stuff too, plus drums, but crap the thing takes Einstein to figure it out.
Plus, I stayed here instead of going with Penelope and El Dumbo on vacay because I didn’t want to leave Sasquatch the Kitten here by herself, and the beach is probably not where a kitten would want to go anyway. Sooo, I watched movies, and caught up on TV shows, and stuff and have just been lazy, kind of on my own little R&R.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Since this is not a criminal investigation, I’m not certain immunity can be granted. But, I’ll defer to attorneys on that.
Nick – I think this came up before about immunity. It can screw up the criminal case so sometimes the feds ask Congress not to offer it. However, since the feds are doing diddly squat I would give him immunity.
The Fifth Amendment right to not testify is a right to not testify or speak. To give immunity does not compel one to testify. This is an issue which should be discussed on this blog. JT? Sometimes the law professors do not see the forests through the trees. Or any trees. So what if Hillary had been porking Monica? Just because they give her immunity does not mean that she has to discuss her privacy rights on television or before some House Committee. The right of privacy is grounded in several Constitutional provisions. Let us discuss them.
BitchinDog – Shirley you do not mean that Hillary has been porking Monica? I know there has been talk of her and Huma but never Monica.
More clearly: “4. If uncertain, can the wording be changed or the meaning altered so that the law advances the Progressive Narrative?”
One should never miss the Orwell clause.
I imagine it must be difficult for Law professors to teach the law when the law has been “fundamentally transformed” into meaninglessness.
A simple algorithm would replace the SCOTUS and all the Courts of Appeal in our Brave New US World, and save the serfs some time and frustration, much as we now know that words can mean whatever you want them to mean.
SCOTUS Algorithm:
1. Does affirming the Legal Question advance the Progressive Narrative?
2. If yes, the issue is Affirmed
3. If no, the issue is Denied.
4. If uncertain, can the wording be changed so that the law advances the Progressive Narrative?
4a. If yes, the issue is Affirmed
4b. If no, the issue is Denied.
Simple, short, and the same result as SCOTUS, minus those long boring kabuki hearings.
“anyone else employed by the State Dept. or any other agency handling classified material would have been fired and prosecuted for doing what Hillary has done.”
Key words: “anyone else”.
Pres. Obama (PBUH) has proven that we now have a Night of the Living Dead Constitution.
Ha ha ha.
As such, rules are enforced only when you want them enforced, that is, against the wrong sort of people.
For example, the doofus Kentucky clerk refusing to enforce the gay marriage SCOTUS command goes to jail, but the Mayors refusing to enforce immigration law (“sanctuary cities”) are not jailed, even when people get murdered by our Glorious Mexican Invading Citizen Replacements.
It is so adorable that people think we have –what does OldThink call it, oh yes, The Rule of Law— that I just want to pinch you all on the cheek!
Haw!
Seriously, comrades, what part of “fundamentally transformed” did you fail to understand?
Edward Snowden was interviewed by Al Jazerra on this email scandal. He points out that anyone else employed by the State Dept. or any other agency handling classified material would have been fired and prosecuted for doing what Hillary has done. That’s something JT and others who have security clearances have also said.
Squeek, Great to see you’re back from Martha’s Vineyard.
Paul Schulte: Remember the Bush Administration folks who could not recall during the torture and other hearings? Amazing to watch well-educated Ivy league professionals claiming memory lapses yet they went on to work in highly compensated and demanding jobs.
Sounds like the IT guy is getting good counsel, though if that response of “I don’t recall” will work for the big shots, why not for the IT guy?
If you’re going to play in this game, you need to be aware of what’s illegal and what can be made of something which, while legal, can look bad because it is hard to explain to a typical voter (whose reading skills are 4th grade and reads only the sports and comics sections and listens to right wing yuk-it-up radio commentary). If you use private communications, typical voters will assume it is to hide stuff. Unfortunately, that assumption is sometimes correct. Once is enough. Once makes you a crook, forever.
Regarding post by Lisa N: Be afraid. Be very afraid. And, remember that dogs don’t chase parked cars.
Fogdog – I can tell you from experience that having a high stress intense job can cause you to ‘not remember’ events. So much stuff is going in your brain at the same time, only 5-9 items can go in short-term memory. However, you are going through 5-9 items every 15 minutes. So, if you are lucky, one of those will stick in short-term which will eventually go to long term memory.
Lisa N,
Ben Franklin, 1787, “A republic…if you can keep it.”
Oops!
Ben Franklin, 2015, “A republic…if you can take it back.”
———-
“At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin was queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation. In the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention, a lady asked Dr. Franklin “Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy.” Franklin replied, “A republic . . . if you can keep it.”
———-
The President is ineligible, Congress abdicates in a stupor, immigration/balkanization is by criminal act, the restricted-vote republic is diluted into collectivist dictatorship, the bias of affirmative action and welfare prevail over individual freedom and private property rights, the “middle class” is exported to Europe, Japan and China, the “American Dream” is for foreigners and the Military/Industrial/Fed/Treasury Complex presides as the “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
———-
Global Communism
“We will bury you.” Nikita Khrushchev, 1953
Wiki-
The actual verbal context was: “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in” (“Нравится вам или нет, но история на нашей стороне. Мы вас закопаем”). In his subsequent public speech Khrushchev declared: “[…] We must take a shovel and dig a deep grave, and bury colonialism as deep as we can”.[5] Later, on August 24, 1963, Khrushchev remarked in his speech in Yugoslavia, “I once said, ‘We will bury you,’ and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you,”[6] a reference to the Marxist saying, “The proletariat is the undertaker of capitalism”, based on the concluding statement in Chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto: “What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” Khrushchev repeated this Marxist thesis at a meeting with journalists in the US in September 1959. Many Americans interpreted the quote as a nuclear threat.[7]
They did.
Well, color me “not surprised” by this.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
For example, if the emails show Hillary selfies while she eats fetal pâté, brain casserole, and fried legs, my fellow comrades will quickly confirm make those items to be part of the USDA Food Pyramid.
My favorite part is that my lefty comrades will still vote for her.
See, we don’t have principles or Party goals, just power and its maintenance.
Wake me when this kerfuffle is over.
Email, shemale.
Hillary abides by a larger law than these insipid rules, meant to control far lesser beings.
As Chief Consort, I am sometimes troubled by her minstrel cycles, but I am heartened by the 5th Column Press continued role as Democrats With Bylines.
On to VICTROY!
Susan McDougal spent 18 months in jail rather than tell a truth that would damage Hillary Clinton. She’s able to inspire incredible loyalty from a certain type of small minded person.
Aridog,
I was Army ASA with AG clearance above top secret. Worked with lots of agencies, domestic and international.
The rules are clearly defined. Always was warned about Ft. Leavenworth, hard labor and jail time.
Lisa N @ 11:59 am
Exactly what I was alluding to at 8:50 am. The public can now expect some sudden and mysterious deaths–car crashes, planes exploding, suicides, etc.– which will just happen to coincide with various parts of this particular controversy or others in which the Clintons are entangled. I hope that I am wrong. I fear that I am not.
Let’s keep our eyes on the ball.
Who was Hillary’s boss?
Whom did Hillary call the night of Benghazi?
Where does the “buck” stop?
He should just “Clapper” his testimony. Apparently, that is an okay thing to do.
doglover said…
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…
Just what transparency do these supporters claim for Hillary? Security aside, just what forthrightness has Hillary Clinton demonstrated? Hiding everything sounds rather opaque to me.
Kerry asked…
Question 1….Did Bryan ever have or hold a top secret government security clearance?
A security clearance by itself is usually moot if you do not also hold a position that stipulates a “Role” and vetted “Permissions” for that “Role” assigned by competent IT Database Administrators. A clearance by itself provides legal access to nothing, if administered properly (?), and a “Role” only justifies certain, limited, “Permissions” on SSIDs applicable to your “Role.” In short even with a valid Role & Permission allocation you do not get to see everything. So I’d ask did this guy ever have an applicable vetted “Role” whether an employee of State or other agency, or contracted for same?
When I was an active DOD & DA “Fed” I had Roles & Permissions on several global SSIDs but my clearance also stipulated that if I should inadvertently acquire information outside of my Role & Permissions I was required (by law as it was advised to me) to report it to the applicable DBA and to immediately redact (minimum of 3 overwrites in those days, higher now) my digital files (or printed) all of the inappropriate information. And this did not matter if the messages or files were marked classified or not, I was expected to know their status by source and content.
Apparently Ms Clinton felt none of those obligations, nor acknowledges them to this day…in short, she’s a liar and a mendacious control freak.
Caveat: Careless or lazy administration, by Database Administrators (DBA’s) of Roles & Permissions is how PFC Manning had the access he had (equivalent to a four star general)…same for Mr Snowden…even as a short time DBA he did not have a Role justifying the Permissions he allocated for himself. Assigning SSID access codes to vetted others is one thing, reading everything on those SSIDs is another and he was not cleared for that if the legal protocols were followed…which they were not. A DBA is an overseer of SSID codes assignment, not a carte blanc to assign all of them to him/her self and read everything.
This is what happens when you mess with the Clinton’s!!
And in case you have forgotten all the other bodies this witch has left in her wake……Just a quick refresher course ‘lest we forget’ what has happened to many “friends” of the Clintons.
1- James McDougal – Clintons convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr’s investigation.
2 – Mary Mahoney – A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown .. The murder happened just after she was togo public w:th her story of sexual harassment in the White House.
3 – Vince Foster – Former White House councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock’s Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruleda suicide.
4 – Ron Brown – Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown’s skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later the air Traffic controller commited suicide.
5 – C. Victor Raiser, II – Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.
6 – Paul Tulley – Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotelroom in Little Rock , September 1992. Described by Clinton as a “dear friend and trusted advisor”.
7 – Ed Willey – Clinton fundraiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.
8 – Jerry Parks – Head of Clinton’s gubernatorial security team in Little Rock .. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock Park’s son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.
9 – James Bunch – Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a “Black Book” of people which contained names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.
10 – James Wilson – Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater..
11 – Kathy Ferguson – Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.
12 – Bill Shelton – Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancee.
13 – Gandy Baugh – Attorney for Clinton’s friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.
14 – Florence Martin – Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal, Mena, Arkansas, airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds.
15 – Suzanne Coleman – Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death.
16 – Paula Grober – Clinton’s speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.
17 – Danny Casolaro – Investigative reporter. Investigating MenaAirport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.
18 – Paul Wilcher – Attorney investigating corruption at MenaAirport with Casolaro and the 1980 “October Surprise” was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993, in his WashingtonDC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death.
19 – Jon Parnell Walker – Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington , Virginia apartment balcony August 15, 1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty scandal.
20 – Barbara Wise – Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.
21 – Charles Meissner – Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.
22 – Dr. Stanley Heard – Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton ‘s advisory council personally treated Clinton’s mother, stepfather and brother.
23 – Barry Seal – Drug running TWA pilot out of Mena Arkansas, death was no accident.
24 – Johnny Lawhorn, Jr. – Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.
25 – Stanley Huggins – Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.
26 – Hershell Friday – Attorney and Clinton fundraiser died March 1, 1994, when his plane exploded.
27 – Kevin Ives & Don Henry – Known as “The boys on the track” case. Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, due to falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.
THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:
28 – Keith Coney – Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, 7/88.
29 – Keith McMaskle – Died, stabbed 113 times, Nov, 1988.
30 – Gregory Collins – Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.
31 – Jeff Rhodes – He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989.
32 – James Milan – Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to natural causes”.
33 – Jordan Kettleson – Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.
34 – Richard Winters – A suspect in the Ives/Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.
THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD
35 – Major William S. Barkley, Jr.
36 – Captain Scott J . Reynolds
37 – Sgt. Brian Hanley
38 – Sgt. Tim Sabel
39 – Major General William Robertson
40 – Col. William Densberger
41 – Col. Robert Kelly
42 – Spec. Gary Rhodes
43 – Steve Willis
44 – Robert Williams
45 – Conway LeBleu
46 – Todd McKeehan
This doesn’t include the hacker in Europe who hacked Hillary’s server who suddenly died a couple weeks ago. Quite an impressive list!
The public must become aware of what happens to friends of the Clintons! I would just about guarantee that this aide will soon die a mysterious death, just like all the rest of them, who had info on the Clintons.
Or . . . The Clintons are just cursed! Which are you going to believe?