Bryan Pagliano had previously invoked the Fifth Amendment during private testimony before the House Benghazi Committee. | AP Photo Clinton tech aide takes 5th in deposition

A former computer technology aide to Hillary Clinton repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment Wednesday during a court-ordered deposition in a lawsuit related to Clinton's private email set-up, according a conservative group pressing the legal case.

Tech specialist Bryan Pagliano asserted his constitutional right against self-incrimination "more than 125 times" during the testimony, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in an interview.


In addition to refusing to answer questions based on the Fifth Amendment, Pagliano's attorneys repeatedly stepped in to block answers to other queries they said went beyond the scope of topics allowed by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, Fitton said.

"On many of the key issues, he took the Fifth," Fitton said. "He took the Fifth even on questions about his resume. They had a very narrow definition of what discovery" was permitted, the Judicial Watch official said.

Asked what questions Pagliano did answer, Fitton said he believed the tech aide acknowledged that he had read documents shown him by attorneys at the deposition.

Pagliano's lead attorney, Mark MacDougall, declined to comment Wednesday.

Pagliano worked as a computer specialist on Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, then joined the State Department while she served as secretary of state. During that time, he was also being paid by the Clintons to maintain their private server at their home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Those payments were not reported on Pagliano's financial disclosure at State, officials said.

Fitton said that, in addition to MacDougall, three other attorneys from law firm Akin Gump representing Pagliano attended the deposition Wednesday. The former IT aide declined to answer a question about who was paying for his legal counsel, Fitton added.

Pagliano previously invoked the Fifth Amendment during private testimony before the House Benghazi Committee. After initially declining to speak with FBI investigators, the tech specialist struck a limited immunity deal with prosecutors and spoke with investigators.

Pagliano's attorneys asked that his deposition in the Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act suit not be videotaped, citing the potential for the tape to be used to embarrass him or to taint a jury in a potential criminal case. Sullivan declined to block the videotaping, but he did order that all videos of depositions in the case be put under seal.

However, the transcript of Pagliano's questioning is expected to be released as soon as Thursday.

Fitton said he hopes Sullivan will view Pagliano's assertion of the Fifth Amendment as evidence that Clinton's private email setup may have been designed to evade the Freedom of Information Act. "The judge can draw negative inferences about whether there was an effort to subvert FOIA," Fitton said.

In a speech Wednesday, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump again slammed Clinton over her email system, including her decision to delete about 32,000 messages her attorneys deemed personal.

"While we may not know what is in those deleted emails, our enemies probably do. So, they probably now have a blackmail file over someone who wants to be President of the United States," Trump said. "This fact alone disqualifies her from the Presidency. We can’t hand over our government to someone whose deepest, darkest secrets may be in the hands of our enemies."

In response, Clinton's presidential campaign cited news stories saying logs from the server offer no indication that it was hacked.

Closed-door depositions in the FOIA lawsuit are scheduled to continue next week, with testimony expected from former Clinton Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin and Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy.