A former information technology specialist for Hillary Clinton invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer more than 100 questions Wednesday about his role in setting up Clinton’s private email server.
Bryan Pagliano, who worked for Clinton’s failed presidential bid in 2008 before following her into the State Department, was initially slated to testify earlier this month before his legal team attempted to avoid a deposition by pointing to Pagliano’s immunity deal with the Justice Department.
A federal judge demanded the details of the immunity agreement, which has been kept largely under wraps by the FBI agents investigating Clinton’s private email use.
Pagliano’s attorneys also filed a motion asking the court to prevent Judicial Watch, the conservative group that brought the case forward, from filming the deposition for fear that the tape could be used as fodder against Clinton in the presidential race. That request was denied, although the footage of Pagliano’s testimony will remain under seal.
A source with Judicial Watch confirmed Pagliano pleaded the Fifth Amendment roughly 125 times during his deposition.
Pagliano has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights each time he has been asked about the private server during the past year, with the apparent exception of his conversations with law enforcement agents. He did so during a closed-door hearing before the House Select Committee on Benghazi in September.
The Judicial Watch case began as a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit intended to uncover personnel files for Huma Abedin, the former deputy chief of staff for Clinton. Abedin received a rare “special government employee” designation that allowed her to collect simultaneous paychecks from the Clinton Foundation, the State Department and a consulting firm called Teneo Strategies.
But the lawsuit has morphed into one of the leading windows into Clinton’s server arrangement, exposing the criminal nature of the FBI probe and the fact that deleted emails from her server are being held as evidence, among other things.
Abedin is scheduled for a deposition Tuesday.
