Ex-Clinton IT Aide Bryan Pagliano Held in ‘Contempt of Congress’

WASHINGTON (AP) – A Republican-led House committee voted on Thursday to hold in contempt of Congress a former State Department employee who helped set up Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

The committee was also scheduled to meet for a second time to hear testimony from another key IT player in the Clinton email scandal.

Democrats argued that forcing Pagliano to testify publicly in light of his own immunity deal with the Justice Department would be a violation of his Fifth Amendment-protected rights. Government lawyers showed members of the committee a copy of that agreement, which had been placed under seal by a federal judge, on Thursday morning.

“A subpoena issued by a Congressional committee is required by law to serve a valid legislative objective and there is none here”, reads the letter, which refers to the committee’s efforts to force Pagliano to testify as a “naked political agenda” with “no valid legislative aim”.

The committee has just voted to hold Pagliano in contempt of Congress.

A lawyer for the aide, Bryan Pagliano, said his client was defending his right not to appear because the committee was informed ahead of time Pagliano will assert his Fifth Amendment rights at the hearing and the only goal otherwise for his appearance, according to the ranking Democrat on the committee, is a Republican “photo-op”.

Despite a congressional subpoena ordering him to appear, Pagliano did not show up at the Committee’s hearing.

“Subpoenas are not optional”, Chaffetz said, insisting Pagliano is a “crucial witness” in their investigation of Clinton’s emails.

The committee was focused “exclusively and obsessively with Secretary Clinton, and that is for political reasons”, Cummings continued. Recognizing that a contempt finding was an extraordinary measure, Chaffetz insisted that “this committee can not operate.if subpoenas are ignored”. The committee has held no hearings on those subjects or Trump’s “charitable foundation’s illegal campaign donations”, Cummings said.

Mr. Pagliano was subsequently advised that his failure to appear exposed him to the possibility of being held in contempt and potential criminal liability pursuant to 2 U.S.C. §§ 192 and 194. This week, Chaffetz demanded that Reddit preserve deleted posts that may have been written by an employee of Platte River Networks, the company that Clinton later hired to maintain the server. He appears to be referencing work to collect Clinton’s emails and then turn them over to the State Department after she left office.

Pagliano previously pleaded the Fifth Amendment in September 2015 when he was called before the congressional committee investigating the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

House Republicans are trying to get to the bottom of Clinton’s emails and the FBI investigation into them before November. Clinton stated “she was also unaware” of the deletions.