WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., gave a gentle laugh and jested, "Not to use an overused line" but then turned dead serious in answering WND's question, by declaring that ignoring a congressional subpoena "crosses a red line."

WND had asked: What did lawmakers intend to do about the refusal of Hillary Clinton's former IT aide, Bryan Pagliano – the man who set up her homebrew email server – to obey a subpoena to appear Tuesday before a House committee hearing?

Meadows said discussions among House members were under way "right now" to come up with an effective response to the shocking no-show by the man who reportedly was given immunity by the FBI during its investigation into Clinton's use of a personal email server to conduct official business as secretary of state.

That investigation resulted in the FBI declining to recommend criminal charges despite, as WND reported, abundant evidence that Clinton lied about her email system in her sworn testimony before the House Benghazi committee last October.

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Referring to Pagliano, Meadows added, speaking for himself, "Being able to pick and choose the place at which you invoke the Fifth is not a constitutional right."

Pagliano invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 125 times during a court-ordered deposition in June, as part of a lawsuit brought by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Meadows continued, "To suggest there is a right to plead the Fifth only in the privacy of a closed room is not something I can find anywhere in the text of the Constitution. To thwart a subpoena that would compel someone to show up is something that must be dealt with, for the integrity of this institution (Congress)."

Meadows made his remarks on Capitol Hill before a small group of invited reporters. Also speaking to the press were Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., who agreed with Meadows' assessment.

WND followed up by asking: What was their response to Democrats' criticism that Pagliano could've made himself criminally liable by testifying? Democrats noted that House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, had made a criminal referral asking the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to investigate deletions from Clinton's server.

Meadows responded that referrals are essentially nothing more than requests to the Justice Department.

"In all those referrals, we (Congress) have neither the ability to investigate nor prosecute. And we certainly don't have the ability to bring forth criminal charges. So, a mere referral would not change the fact that they're compelled to show up."

As WND reported on Wednesday, if Clinton's IT specialists do know damning details about the former secretary of state's use of a private, unsecured email server, they sure weren't talking.

Not only did Pagliano refuse to even show up, other tech experts who maintained Clinton's email setup asserted their Fifth Amendment right to refuse to testify.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Chaffetz, promised to consider a "full range of options" to address Pagliano's "failure" to appear, Fox News reported.

"He should be here. … It is not optional," he said. "His attendance is required here."

Chaffetz accused Pagliano of "thumbing his nose at Congress" and said there will be consequences for his failure to appear.

"We're not letting go of this," Chaffetz said.

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There may be legal penalties for ignoring a subpoena. 2 U.S. Code Section 192 states:

"Every person who having been summoned as a witness by the authority of either House of Congress to give testimony or to produce papers upon any matter under inquiry before ... any committee of either House of Congress, willfully makes default ... shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 nor less than $100 and imprisonment in a common jail for not less than one month nor more than twelve months."

Pagliano, who is a key witness in the case, claimed there were no successful hacking attempts on Clinton's server.

He is the same man who refused last year to cooperate with a House panel probing the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. In 2015, he asserted his Fifth Amendment right protecting him from self-incrimination.

But why would Pagliano defy a subpoena to testify if he was granted immunity? That's the question Republicans asked Tuesday.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Pagliano’s lawyer claimed the subpoena was an “abuse of process,” Fox News reported.

Two other IT aides from Platte River Networks, Bill Thornton and Paul Combetta, appeared at the hearing but refused to testify.

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Combetta, who wiped Clinton's archive and destroyed it with BleachBit after Congress sent a subpoena, pleaded the Fifth six times. Thornton took the Fifth four times. Eventually, the witnesses were excused.

Both men simply responded to questions with the statement, "On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment constitutional privilege."

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Cummings said he understood why Thornton and Combetta refused to cooperate by answering the questions.

Chaffetz grew visibly frustrated as Thornton declined to even say if he had been interviewed by the FBI.

Another witness, Bill Clinton aide Justin Cooper, did answer questions.

In perhaps a stunning admission, Cooper said he did access Clinton's server and the more than 2,000 classified documents on it, but he didn't have a security clearance. Cooper also admitted to Congress that he's not an expert in communications security.

Cooper reportedly destroyed Clinton's BlackBerry devices by "breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer," according to an FBI investigative summary report.

Jordan referenced a Platte River Networks email with the sender/recipient information redacted. It stated, "Wondering how we can sneak an email in now after the fact asking them when they (Clinton's lawyers) told us to cut the backups and have them confirm it for our records. Starting to think this whole thing really is covering up some shaddy [sic] [expletive]."

During the hearing, Jordan made the following comments:

"August 2015. These guys are starting to wonder, wow we don't have anything in writing. We've been given all these instructions – verbally, phone calls, conference calls – all these instructions to change the backup, delete things, erase things, BleachBit things, take hammers to things, all these instructions. We don't have anything in writing. We might be in trouble. And guess what? They are. That's the story. And, that's why it's appropriate, Mr. Cummings, for the chairman to invite them in here today and see if they would finally answer somebody's questions. "Mr. Gowdy's just right. He's exactly right. They'll talk to the people who can put them in jail, but they won't talk to Congress. They'll talk to the Justice Department – Mr. Pagliano, Mr. Combetta will talk to the Justice Department, but they won't talk to us. We can't put them in jail. We just want to get answers for the American people, and they won't talk to us. ... No regular American can get away with the kind of behavior Secretary Clinton gets away with. Two standards now in the country, and this is what is so wrong and this is why the hearings you're having and the investigation we're doing is entirely appropriate."

On Monday, Chaffetz served Jason Herring, the acting assistant FBI director for congressional affairs, with a subpoena for the full Clinton case file, Fox News reported. Chaffetz and other Republicans accused the agency of withholding witness interviews and unnecessarily redacting key data in documents released last month.

"We are entitled to the full file," he said.

Cummings accused Republicans of playing politics and brushed off an "emergency" hearing held Monday.

"As far as I can tell, the only 'emergency' is that the election is less than two months away," he said.

On Twitter Tuesday evening, the topic Clinton IT was trending. Several users speculated about Pagliano's reasons for ignoring the subpoena. The following are some tweets on the issue:

"Immunity means that you are talking so you keep walking free. So why not talking? Clinton IT above the law as well?"

"But I thought Clinton campaign was going to be more transparent now?"

"Clinton IT would not plead the 5th if they didn't have something to hide or know something incriminating. Think they are above the law too."

"Who is more likely to get arrested for skipping a congressional subpoena? Common deplorable, or Clinton associate?"

"You don't get to blow off a congressional subpoena. There are consequences!"

"The whole Clinton IT could probably be the country's biggest RICO case if we only had an FBI that wasn't involved"

Chances of Clinton IT staffer Bryan Pagliano "killing himself" this week ... 100%

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