Hillary Clinton Email Update: Benghazi Panel May Offer Clinton Techie Immunity
The technology expert, who maintained the private email servers then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used to conduct government business, will be offered immunity when he testifies before the House Benghazi committee, the Daily Mail reported.
Bryan Pagliano had informed its members of the Republican-led committee last week that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to answer incriminating questions about what he knew of the presidential front-runner's communications setup, Politico noted.
But that argument would be mute if Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, chairmen of the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, respectively, come through with their offer of shielding Clinton's "go-to technology fixer" from any prosecution.
"The Committees have the authority to obtain an immunity order, to acquire the information they need, while also protecting your right against self-incrimination," Grassley and Johnson told Pagliano's lawyer, Mark MacDougall, in a letter.
The chairmen were responding to a missive MacDougall and his colleagues had sent them last week, indicating that "we hope the members ... will respect our client's right to invoke the protections of the Constitution (and) excuse (him) from personally appearing on Sept. 10, 2015."
The lawyers had predicted that their client would "decline to produce documents that may be responsive to the subpoena," 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," they said.
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.
If the tech expert agreed to testify under immunity, the move would mark "a dramatic choice ... that has the potential to roil Capitol Hill this fall," the Daily Mail commented. It might also spell trouble for the Democratic presidential candidate as it could "bring new life" to the controversy surrounding her communication habits, the newspaper concluded.
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