“Any effort to require Mr. Pagliano to publicly appear this week and again assert his Fifth Amendment rights before a committee of the same Congress, inquiring about the same matter as the Benghazi Committee, furthers no legislative goal and is a transparent effort to publicly harass and humiliate our client for unvarnished political purposes”, wrote Pagliano’s attorneys with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. Cooper also helped establish a separate private server for Clinton during her tenure as secretary of State that was maintained by the Colorado-based company Platte River Networks, which he referred to as the “Pagliano server”.
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Ever since, Pagliano has become a target for Republicans hoping to land charges on Clinton, and has been called into questioning for numerous hearings and depositions; sometimes about Clinton’s actions during the 2012 Benghazi raid, sometimes about the potentially classified information that had passed through the server itself.
Tuesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing came one day after Chaffetz subpoenaed the FBI’s complete case file of its investigation into Clinton’s email practices at the State Department.
Pagliano was given a form of immunity from prosecution in 2015 for cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as it looked into the mishandling of classified information over the server, but has otherwise cited the Fifth Amendment in declining to provide information to lawmakers.
Comey called Clinton’s handling of classified material “extremely careless” but said she did not violate any laws because she did not knowingly or willfully mishandle sensitive information.
Combetta took the Fifth six times and Thornton took the Fifth four times, before both were excused.
Justin Cooper, the Clinton aide who worked with Pagliano to set up the server in the basement of Clinton’s Chappaqua, N.Y. home, told the committee he lacks a security clearance and is “not an expert in computer security”. His attorney, Howard Shapiro, sat behind him. Cooper also registered the email domain “clintonemail.com” in 2009, when Hillary Clinton’s nomination to be secretary of state was being considered by the Senate.
In response to a question from Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., Cooper said he had not been part of any conversations that involved attorneys discussing the erasing of Clinton’s emails. Lawmakers can jail people who defy congressional subpoenas.
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Clinton has said she regrets using the system in her NY home’s basement for work. Throughout this ordeal, he has repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Voters have said in surveys the decision contributes to a feeling she is untrustworthy.
