The men, including one who reportedly erased an archive of Clinton’s emails despite being aware of an order to preserve them, repeatedly asserted their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
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Cummings also called the accusations Clinton lied to Congress “ludicrous” and part of a Republican pattern involving Clinton: “accuse, investigate, fail, repeat”.
Two officials from a company that maintained the server after it was moved to a data center in New Jersey appeared at the hearing but invoked their right not to testify.
Chaffetz told FBI Acting Assistant Director for Legislative Affairs Jason Herring during a House of Representatives oversight committee hearing on Monday that he will issue a subpoena “right now”.
As to what the consequences could be, Chaffetz said, “I will consult with counsel and my colleagues on the committee to consider a full range of options available to address Mr. Pagliano’s failure to appear”.
Pagliano previously appeared before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, the panel investigating the terrorist attack that first unearthed the existence of Clinton’s private email server.
A fourth witness, Justin Cooper, testified for more than two hours about his role setting up the email system in 2009 while he worked as an aide to the Clinton family.
The IT specialist who ran Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server ignored a subpoena to testify before Congress Tuesday, leaving GOP lawmakers fuming and threatening retribution.
At the hearing, two witnesses involved in maintaining Clinton’s server – Paul Combetta and Bill Thornton of Platte River Networks – invoked their Fifth Amendment rights under questioning by Chaffetz.
Democrats insist the sole objective of the hearings is to undermine Clinton’s bid for the presidency. He also said was never offered immunity by the FBI in its investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified information.
Chaffetz issued the subpoena to Jason Herring, the acting assistant Federal Bureau of Investigation director for congressional affairs. Herring and six other Obama administration officials appeared before the committee to discuss the investigative files.
“I guess this is what happens when you try to schedule a public attack against Hillary Clinton for every day of the week – you get frantic, and you swap substantive discussions for set-up hearings and cheap press hits”, Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in his opening statement. We want all the 302s and we would like the full file (hands to aide behind him).
Tuesday’s hearing marked the the committee’s third in recent days. Republicans have said the documents “did not constitute a complete investigative file”, as numerous records had been substantially blacked out or were missing altogether.
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“If anybody’s under any illusion I’m going to let go of this and let it just sail off into the sunset, they are very ill-advised”, he said.
