Tech guy who set up Hillary’s private email blows off subpoena
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WASHINGTON – The IT specialist who ran Hillary Clinton’s private email server ignored a subpoena to testify before Congress Tuesday, leaving GOP lawmakers fuming and threatening retribution.[/url]
Two other witnesses linked to Clinton’s e-mail server invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and repeatedly refused to answer questions.
Bryan Pagliano, a 2008 Clinton presidential campaign staffer who later went to the State Department, didn’t even bother to show for a House Oversight Committee hearing.
“It’s a serious matter,” said Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).
“Mr. Pagliano has chosen to evade a subpoena duly issued by the committee of the United States House of Representatives. I will consult with counsel and my colleagues to consider a full range of options available to address Mr. Pagliano’s failure to appear.”
“… We also believe he entered into an immunity agreement [with the Justice Department]. You’d think somebody would sing like a song bird if you got immunity from the FBI. What are you afraid of?”
Pagliano has previously invoked Fifth Amendment privileges last year when asked to testify before the House Benghazi Committee. His attorneys say he’s being harassed.
Pagliano’s lawyers claimed he was being harassed “for unvarnished political purposes.”
Two others witnesses who were subpoenead, Paul Combetta and Bill Thornton of Platte River Networks which helped manage the server, repeatedly invoked their Fifth Amendment rights.
Combetta took the Fifth six times and Thornton took the Fifth four times, before both witnesses were excused.
Democrats blasted Republican leadership for using taxpayer dollars for political purposes by calling a third committee hearing within four business days on Clinton’s emails.
“Enough of these emails! I think those of us that have who have sat through this hearing can say the same,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).
Of the four witnesses called to testify, only one remained to answer questions, Justin Cooper, a longtime Bill Clinton aide who registered the clintonemail.com domain name and brought Pagliano on board to manage the private email server.
Cooper said that three people had emails on that server, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Huma Abedin. Cooper said he did not have security clearance although he was an administrator, along with Pagliano, for the server.
As an administrator, Cooper said he was notified when there were failed multiple log-in attempts, including from unauthorized users to get into a server, that occurred “with some frequency.”
Cooper testified that Clinton’s old Blackberries were sometimes destroyed with a hammer only after he transferred information to the new device.
“When Secretary Clinton would transition from one device to the next, we’d take the old device back it up, make sure all the content was transferred on the new device linked with the server so any information that came from the server was on the new device, then once that was completed, wiped the old device using the Blackberry tool to do so and then on occasion I would render them unusable,” Cooper said.
“Why did you use that kind of method, it seems somewhat, if you will barbaric, a hammer to a phone!?” said Georgia GOP Rep. Buddy Carter.
“I think it’s practical to not just throw away a cold device into some sort of garbage receptacle where someone might pick it up out of curiosity and try to use it,” Cooper said.
[img]https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/hearing.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1328&h=882&crop=1/img]
[url=]
WASHINGTON – The IT specialist who ran Hillary Clinton’s private email server ignored a subpoena to testify before Congress Tuesday, leaving GOP lawmakers fuming and threatening retribution.[/url]
Two other witnesses linked to Clinton’s e-mail server invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and repeatedly refused to answer questions.
Bryan Pagliano, a 2008 Clinton presidential campaign staffer who later went to the State Department, didn’t even bother to show for a House Oversight Committee hearing.
“It’s a serious matter,” said Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).
“Mr. Pagliano has chosen to evade a subpoena duly issued by the committee of the United States House of Representatives. I will consult with counsel and my colleagues to consider a full range of options available to address Mr. Pagliano’s failure to appear.”
“… We also believe he entered into an immunity agreement [with the Justice Department]. You’d think somebody would sing like a song bird if you got immunity from the FBI. What are you afraid of?”
Pagliano has previously invoked Fifth Amendment privileges last year when asked to testify before the House Benghazi Committee. His attorneys say he’s being harassed.
Pagliano’s lawyers claimed he was being harassed “for unvarnished political purposes.”
Two others witnesses who were subpoenead, Paul Combetta and Bill Thornton of Platte River Networks which helped manage the server, repeatedly invoked their Fifth Amendment rights.
Combetta took the Fifth six times and Thornton took the Fifth four times, before both witnesses were excused.
Democrats blasted Republican leadership for using taxpayer dollars for political purposes by calling a third committee hearing within four business days on Clinton’s emails.
“Enough of these emails! I think those of us that have who have sat through this hearing can say the same,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).
Of the four witnesses called to testify, only one remained to answer questions, Justin Cooper, a longtime Bill Clinton aide who registered the clintonemail.com domain name and brought Pagliano on board to manage the private email server.
Cooper said that three people had emails on that server, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Huma Abedin. Cooper said he did not have security clearance although he was an administrator, along with Pagliano, for the server.
As an administrator, Cooper said he was notified when there were failed multiple log-in attempts, including from unauthorized users to get into a server, that occurred “with some frequency.”
Cooper testified that Clinton’s old Blackberries were sometimes destroyed with a hammer only after he transferred information to the new device.
“When Secretary Clinton would transition from one device to the next, we’d take the old device back it up, make sure all the content was transferred on the new device linked with the server so any information that came from the server was on the new device, then once that was completed, wiped the old device using the Blackberry tool to do so and then on occasion I would render them unusable,” Cooper said.
“Why did you use that kind of method, it seems somewhat, if you will barbaric, a hammer to a phone!?” said Georgia GOP Rep. Buddy Carter.
“I think it’s practical to not just throw away a cold device into some sort of garbage receptacle where someone might pick it up out of curiosity and try to use it,” Cooper said.
[img]https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/hearing.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1328&h=882&crop=1/img]
