(CNN) Bryan Pagliano, the former State Department IT specialist who managed Hillary Clinton's private email server, was hired by the State Department as a political appointee -- an unusual arrangement within his department that caused confusion among some managers.

A new set of emails from early 2009, which were released to the conservative legal watchdog group Judicial Watch as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, reveals conversations between top State Department officials about how the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) could go about hiring Pagliano as an IT specialist under this arrangement.

Pagliano had previously worked as an IT director for Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

The emails show that Pagliano's resume was initially sent to Patrick Kennedy, the under secretary for management, in mid-February 2009. Kennedy passed the resume to Susan Swart, the chief information officer at IRM, and Charles Wisecarver, the deputy chief information officer for operations.

Wisecarver apparently met with Pagliano in early March, at which point he sought guidance on bringing in a political appointee -- also referred to as a "Schedule C" employee.

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