The plot surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in her home for State Department business grows thicker.
Tuesday, Bryan Pagliano – her former IT guy, and the then-State Department employee in charge of setting up Clinton’s email server in her New York home – was expected to testify on Capitol Hill about what he knew. And why was he expected?
Because he was supoenaed, so it seemed logical to expect that he’d appear and speak.
But he skipped the hearing, leaving a House Oversight Committee high and dry. He was supposed to speak on the “deletion of some of Clinton’s emails,” the Hill reported.
And Chairman Jason Chaffetz was not pleased. This also, from the Hill, citing Chaffetz:
“‘It’s a serious matter. Mr. Pagliano has chosen to evade a subpoena duly issued by the committee. I will consult with counsel and my colleagues to consider a full range of options available to address Mr. Pagliano’s failure to appear,’ Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said. ‘He should be here. When you are served a subpoena by the United States Congress, that is not optional,’ he said.”
A fellow member, Rep. John Mica, said a contempt of Congress charge ought to be affixed to Pagliano. But Democrats – surprise, surprise – seem to disagree and say Republicans on the committee are unfairly targeting Pagliano.
Pagliano’s testimony could have shed insight on Clinton’s email server, insofar has helping Congress and the American public understand the extent of any security breaches that occurred during her State messaging.
As Fox News noted:
“Pagliano is considered a vital witness in the Clinton email case. He spoke previously to the FBI under immunity, telling the bureau there were no successful security breaches of the server. Pagliano also refused to answer questions last year before a House panel investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. His lawyers said at the time that Pagliano did not want to relinquish his rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.”
But if he has immunity – why the reluctance to speak?
Pagliano was one of three former IT contractors from Platte River Networks, the company Clinton used to host her home-based email server, who were invited by Chaffetz’s committee to testify.
Bill Thornton and Paul Combetta, the other two tech guys, did show, the Daily Caller reported.