Clinton set up her private email server secreted away in her NY home, has been called to appear in a deposition spearheaded by government watchdog group Judicial Watch but, as Politico noted, he has already signaled he intends to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination and plans to refuse to answer any questions.
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As part of the FBI’s investigation into how Hillary Clinton used her private email server for State Department related communication, Bryan Pagliano was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.
In court documents filed Wednesday, his attorney’s said Pagliano is “caught up in a lawsuit with an undisputed political agenda”.
“Given the constitutional implications, the absence of any proper objective for video recording the deposition, and the considerable risk of abuse, the court should preclude Judicial Watch … from creating an audiovisual recording of Mr. Pagliano’s deposition”, the court filing read.
Last fall, Pagliano-who worked for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and went with her to the State Department-has refused to discuss Clinton’s email arrangement or his role in it, invoking the Fifth Amendment before the House Benghazi Committee last fall.
Blaming the Benghazi attack is a striking explanation, given that it was the 2012 attack – and the congressional probe into it – that first exposed Mrs. Clinton’s use of a secret email account, tied to a server kept at her home in NY.
Ms. Mills, in sworn testimony ordered by a federal judge, taken last week and released Tuesday, said Mrs. Clinton and her team were occupied with too many other things to think about going through their official records and making sure they remained with the department – a requirement of multiple federal laws and agency policies.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton has deemed the court filing a setback for the watchdog group. Ms. Mills said as a lawyer, she was tapped by Mrs. Clinton to represent her in reviewing the emails, so she can not be made to testify about those decisions under attorney-client privilege.
Last month, the State Department announced that almost all archived emails sent to and from Pagliano had been lost. The organization has posed questions to numerous Clinton officials, with Mills being one of the more high-profile individuals.
“That decision nearly certainly will result in Judicial Watch at least trying to subpoena Secretary Clinton for a deposition”, he told The Daily Caller.
Mills and her attorneys repeatedly invoked attorney-client privilege and other objections during the deposition when asked about the set-up of Clinton’s email server, her conversations with Clinton’s tech aides, and details about Clinton’s legal representation.
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Furthermore, Mills insisted that Clinton’s use of a private email account was “absolutely not” an attempt to evade the Freedom of Information Act.
