Top Republican senators are pushing the State Department to grant an interview with the agency’s chief information officer in the hopes that he can shed some light on the activities of Bryan Pagliano, a former aide to Hillary Clinton who has invoked his Fifth Amendment right to decline lawmakers’ questions.
Sens. Charles Grassley and Ron Johnson requested Steven Taylor, the agency’s top IT official, sit for a closed-door interview about Pagliano and his role in administering the Clinton email network, according to a report by Politico.
Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, reportedly said they suspected Taylor would have knowledge relevant to the Committee’s investigation and Mr. Pagliano’s role in information systems practices during Secretary Clinton’s tenure” in their letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.
Pagliano has refused to answer questions from three different congressional committees, the FBI and the State Department inspector general. Last week, he walked away from an interview with the House Select Committee on Benghazi after declining to take the panel’s questions for less than 15 minutes.
Grassley and Johnson have weighed a potential immunity deal for Pagliano in order to encourage his cooperation.
The senators are also seeking personnel records from Pagliano’s time at the State Department, including documentation of his salary and any emails that may have discussed the private server.
Clinton has said she paid Pagliano personally for his work on the server she set up in her Chappaqua home.
Grassley and Johnson asked the Justice Department Monday if Pagliano faced a legal probe into whether he should have reported the outside income he earned from working with Clinton.
