Bryan Pagliano departs Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 10, 2015, to give his deposition on the Benghazi investigation. | AP Photo Judge demands to see Clinton aide’s immunity deal

A federal judge has postponed the deposition of a former technology aide to Hillary Clinton and has taken steps that could reveal the details of an immunity agreement the aide reportedly struck with federal prosecutors.

Bryan Pagliano, an information technology specialist who helped set up Clinton's private email server, was scheduled to be deposed Monday in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit exploring the impact of and reasons for her use of the private system during her tenure as secretary of state.


Lawyers for Pagliano said in a court filing earlier this week that he plans to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer any substantive questions at the deposition. Pagliano's lawyers also asked U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan to order that the deposition not be videotaped.

Sullivan issued an order Friday postponing the deposition indefinitely, but also instructing Pagliano's attorneys to explain the Fifth Amendment assertion and to file a copy of Pagliano's agreement with the Justice Department by Tuesday afternoon. The judge did not say explicitly whether the filing would be public, but most court filings are.

"Counsel for Mr. Pagliano shall file a Memorandum of Law addressing the legal authority upon which Mr. Pagliano relies to assert his Fifth Amendment rights in this civil proceeding, including requisite details pertaining to the scope of Mr. Pagliano's reported immunity agreement with the Government," the judge wrote.

The new battle over Pagliano's immunity agreement and its potential public disclosure is an unhelpful development for Clinton's presidential campaign. A flurry of discussion over the details of the deal now seems imminent, along with implications that someone involved may have committed a crime, although no one has been charged.

A Clinton campaign spokesman declined to comment on the development.

In September, Pagliano asserted the Fifth Amendment when called before a private session of the House Benghazi Committee. At that time, Clinton's camp called the decision "both understandable and disappointing."

Pagliano also was reported to have initially declined to talk with FBI agents investigating Clinton's email set-up, how classified information came to reside on that system and whether that information may have been hacked. However, the information technology specialist eventually spoke with the FBI after reaching an agreement that his statements would not be used against him, press reports said.

A lawyer for Pagliano did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a court filing earlier Friday Pagliano's legal team expressed concern that video of him repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment could affect a jury—presumably a jury in a criminal trial.

"The danger from a constitutional perspective is not the effect of the video on the trier of fact in this civil case, but the potential tainting effect on the jury pool in a potential government enforcement action," Pagliano lawyer Mark MacDougall and colleagues wrote.

Details of Pagliano's deal with prosecutors remain unclear, but the statement from Pagliano's lawyers suggests the arrangement doesn't completely preclude a criminal prosecution, although the attorneys did not say directly who might be charged in such a case.

It's unclear what criminal liability Pagliano's attorneys are concerned about, but he was on the State Department's payroll and being paid privately by Clinton at the same time. The payments from Clinton made after he began working at State were not included in his personal financial disclosure, investigators say.

The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in which Pagliano was scheduled to testify Monday was filed by the conservative group Judicial Watch. That organization welcomed the judge's request that the former Clinton tech aide produce a copy of his immunity deal.

"The court's order is an important step to getting more answers from Mr. Pagliano about Hillary Clinton's email system,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.