Hillary Clinton Email Update: Clinton Techie to Plead Fifth Amendment Before Benghazi Panel
The "go-to technology fixer" who maintained the private email servers then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used to conduct government business will invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to answer incriminating questions when he testifies before the House Benghazi committee, Politico reported.
Bryan Pagliano, who had been subpoenaed to appear before the panel on Thursday, informed its members that he would not be answering their questions about what he knew of the presidential front-runner's communications setup.
The committee, led by Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, is looking into the deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which caused the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
"We hope the members of the Select Committee will respect our client's right to invoke the protections of the Constitution (and) excuse Mr. Pagliano from personally appearing on Sept. 10, 2015," his attorney, Mark MacDougall, told the panelists in a letter.
His client would likewise "decline to produce documents that may be responsive to the subpoena," MacDougall anticipated, according to CNN. Given the "current political environment," the tech expert intended to "plead the 5th to any and all questions if he were compelled to testify," his lawyer added.
Pagliano had worked on Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and the following year set up the server at her New York home, The New York Times detailed. The FBI is investigating whether her arrangement may have jeopardized sensitive national security information.
Another top Clinton aide, Cheryl Mills, is also scheduled to appear before the Benghazi panel on Thursday. The chief of staff at the State Department, one of Clinton's "longtime advisers," lacks a security clearance and thus may not be able to answer questions relating to classified materials.
Mills, who led the defense of then-President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial, may also exert attorney-client privilege because she played an important role last year in providing legal advice to the Democratic White House hopeful.
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