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.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=funny+hillary+videos&FORM=VIRE15#view=detail&mid=F53E65187F71DD527178F53E65187F71DD527178
Paul C. Schulte – “Although government officials deemed the e-mails classified after Clinton left office”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-wrote-classified-e-mails-sent-using-private-server/2015/09/01/5d456616-50bd-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html
I found the six emails you talked about with a simple google search. It cleary says it was after she left office.
I’m pretty freaking tired on the willful ignorance on display in threads like this. It’s disgusting to see this level of dishonesty on display from her opponents.
roycommi – the ad hominem attack is a nice touch but just thought I would give you another take on Hillary.
http://nypost.com/2015/08/23/hillarys-e-mail-defense-is-total-bs-former-state-dept-officials/
General Petraeus was convicted for providing classified information. Not to the enemy. Not for nefarious purposes. Simply for transmitting classified information.
Classified information is the same information before and after it is formally classified. Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State and Presidential Candidate (which she has been since 1992), should have known the importance of information BEFORE and AFTER it is formally classified – that certain information would soon be classified.
If this was not an illegal act of treason, it is a politically disqualifying act of incompetence.
Paul C. Schulte – “The State Department began releasing tracts of Clinton’s emails this summer, some of which have been retroactively stamped as classified.” Key word being retroactivly, not classified at the time.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/hillary-clinton-emails-classification-foreign.
As for her system being hacked, the government server wasnt secure either. “Neither would have been secure from hackers or foreign intelligence agencies, so it would be equally problematic whether classified information was carried over the government system or a private server, experts say.”
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1a67b7bfbe9c44628abd35236f12723c/state-department-officials-routinely-sent-secrets-over
GWB’s administration deleted ~22 MILLION emails from a nongovernmental server, but somehow Clinton’s 30k is supposed to matter? No, no it doesn’t matter. Not one bit.
roycommi – at least 6 of the Clinton emails were classified or Top Secret before. Everything from the Sec. of States office is considered classified when it is created.
“Colin Powell relied on personal emails while secretary of state”
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/colin-powell-personal-email-secretary-of-state-115707
Wheres the outrage?
“At least 88 private email accounts were granted to senior Bush administration officials.The administration officials used a private Internet domain…owned by and hosted on an email server run by the Republican National Committee.[6]
Of the 88 White House officials who received RNC email accounts, the RNC has preserved no emails for 51 officials. In 2009, it was announced that as many as 22 million emails may have been deleted.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controversy
Wheres the outrage?
88 Bush officials delete 22 million emails on their own server: no problem.
1 democrat turns over 55,000 emails from her own server: they must be hiding something.
roycommi – no one would be upset if Hillary just used a personal account for wedding stuff and yoga appts. It is the fact that she used a private server, which has been hacked, for official State Dept business, including classified and Top Secret emails.
Gaviria didn’t take that flight.
Pablo Escobar killed 107 people on Avianca Flight 203. His target was just one man, Cesar Gaviria, a Presidential candidate. And, the reason he wanted to kill Gaviria, was because Gaviria supported extradition of drug traffickers to the US for prosecution and incarceration.
LisaN: what a horrifying list of “accidents.” Had no idea so many people managed to “commit suicide” after being affiliated in some way with those evil slime balls. Just read a thorough treatise on Vince Foster’s “suicide” which so clearly was murder. And Ron Brown: why kill him along with so many other passengers! That is all so freaking evil, it makes my head spin….
stevegroen:
“I don’t like Hillary any more than you do, but she hasn’t been convicted of a crime.”
Right, Steve. That’s the point of all these blog posts on HRC. She breaks the law and nothing happens. You and I both would be serving time in jail if we’d done the same things she’s done.
@Annie
No, some of my old friends are still working for her, and they think I am wrong. But I think HRC’s time has come and gone. The whole separate server is just going too far. I can handle a little political lying here and there, but my goodness, you’re Secretary of State and you decide to do your business on your own personal server??? Nope. Sorry, but I can’t swallow that.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Hillary cannot beat The Donald. The Dems need another candidate. Right now I would vote for The Donald over everyone. Build Up That Wall. We need a Wall. An issue that lurks in the shadows is whether The Donald will support marriage between female human and male dog.
I need proof that some hacker offered the info for 500k. That is stupid and a violation of the laws.
They ought to swear in Monica and ask her just who it was who “handled” the cigar– Billy or Hilly.
Monica swore under oath that Bill handled the cigar.
Good to see your busy, Squeek. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
I like it when people are cocky. They fall harder.
Did all the PUMAs jump ship to Trump?
@Karen
I am holding out hope that HRC will be prosecuted. I was for her in a big way in 2008, but this whole email thing is just really stinky. And grossly stupid. You don’t do this kind of stuff unless you have things to hide.
I am going to go for Trump, now. I am not afraid of him nuking anybody. My father and uncle say this was what they used to say about Reagan, too. I think Trump has the potential to be our Churchill.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
This also strongly reminds me of the Lois Lerner IRS scandal targeting conservatives, in which she pled the 5th and not a darn thing happened to her.
Here’s the bottom line: I would trust neither Hillary nor Trump with the Red Button. People can adore Hillary all they want, but her long history of lying and flouting the law is well documented. She can’t escape the facts because she’s led a very public life. She’s not an ingenue that has a hidden past. We know all about her. Past predicts future, so if she became President, she would continue to lie and break the law. We’ve all read about the perils of an uber presidency on this very blog, so clearly Hillary would not be a panacea. Plus I can’t think of a single thing she accomplished while holding office.
Watergate seems so tame by comparison. They bugged a competitor’s election campaign. Big deal. Now they plant moles and hack into computer files. Hillary and Obama have done more than Nixon ever tried, and he was held accountable.
And, yes, it does appear that people only want the Rule of Law to apply in circumstances they agree with, instead of being blind and equal for all.
Watergate is not tame by comparison. C’mon. I don’t like Hillary any more than you do, but she hasn’t been convicted of a crime. And if she is elected, the Republican-led Congress can reappoint Ken Starr to stagnate legislation and look for the blue dress.
Well, it seems like par for the course on the Beltway. It’s true that Hillary has quite a reputation for dishonesty, but it’s also true that many politicians do, because there are no real consequences for their actions.
Much as I am upset that Hillary is the Teflon Queen, there are so many of them walking around DC and state capitals. We the public have permitted a ruling government class to arise, above the law. The law does not apply to the. Supporters flock to their defense should anyone try to apply the law to them.
We get what we deserve when we allow this behavior to continue. Our politicians are only as honest as we demand they be.
What really galls me is that government employees get fired, and charged with crimes as applicable, for doing far less. But they’re not lucky enough to be high enough in government to get a Teflon coating.
I like a Trump-Hucklebee ticket. That way we can marry fascism and ecclesiastical law in the same way Mussolini and Pius XI did.
Imagine the discounts for protestants at Atlantic City hotels.