Getty Clinton camp ‘pleased’ former email staffer talking to FBI

Hillary Clinton’s campaign welcomed news that the Democratic front-runner’s former top IT staffer is now cooperating with the FBI's probe of her private email server — following reports that the Justice Department granted the staffer immunity from prosecution.

Bryan Pagliano — who worked for Clinton’s 2008 campaign, then followed her to the State Department — set up the controversial email system at the center of the FBI's investigation into whether the homebrewed server put classified material at risk.


Since last fall, however, he has asserted his Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer questions from the FBI and congressional investigators about who came up with the idea and who, if anyone, at the State Department may have approved it.

But The Washington Post reported Wednesday night that the Justice Department had struck an immunity deal with Pagliano, allowing him to discuss the issue freely without fear of incriminating himself. Immunity would likely bar prosecutors from using information he discloses against him in any future proceedings.

The latest email revelation follows a strong showing by Clinton on Super Tuesday, where she gained a significant edge over her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders. But Pagliano's deal, and the promise of more closed-door testimony about the email setup, suggests the issue will continue to dog the Democratic front-runner.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said the campaign was “pleased” that Pagliano was speaking with investigators. The spokesman also noted that Clinton has made herself available for questions from the FBI, but he said it has not yet taken her up on the offer. “As we have said since last summer, Secretary Clinton has been cooperating with the Department of Justice’s security inquiry, including offering in August to meet with them to assist their efforts if needed,” Fallon added in a statement.

Last summer, when Pagliano took the Fifth rather than submit to an interview by the House Benghazi Committee, Clinton’s campaign issued a statement calling that decision “disappointing.”

“We disagreed w/ his decision not to answer questions from Benghazi Committee so are pleased he is cooperating now,” Fallon said on Twitter on Wednesday night.

Congressional Republican investigators for months have considered offering Pagliano immunity but refrained from doing so in part out of concern they might impinge on the FBI’s investigation. Republicans have long questioned whether Clinton and her staff were intentionally trying to circumvent rules that require work emails to be stored with the government so they can be released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.

Pagliano might know more about the reasons for the unusual arrangement.

Pagliano, however, is unlikely to know much about the content of the Clinton emails that in part triggered the FBI probe. More than 2,000 now-classified emails passed through Clinton’s unsecured system, including 22 that were at the most sensitive level: “top secret.” The Clinton campaign maintains that those emails were classified after Clinton sent them and that none were marked classified at the time they were sent.

The FBI has interviewed some of Clinton's former staffers at State and is expected to request interviews with her closest aides. Her former deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, for example, was the author of several of the emails now deemed “top secret,” POLITICO reported in February. Investigators also may want to question Clinton herself.

On Friday morning, conservative group Citizens United filed additional Freedom of Information Act requests for State Department documents. The group requested emails from Clinton staffer Heather Samuelson, a senior adviser and White House liaison who worked closely with chief of staff Cheryl Mills, to Mills and Huma Abedin.

Mills told the House Benghazi Committee last fall that Samuelson was the initial person who leafed through each Clinton email to determine what was work related, and should be preserved, and what was personal, and would be slated for deletion. Although Samuelson sorted through the messages, Mills and Clinton’s other lawyer, David Kendall, signed off on the process.

The group is also asking for any records, emails and communications related to the Clinton Executive Services Corp., the Clinton entity through which the family paid for maintenance of the server.