In yet another Emailgate update that sounds shady but proves nothing, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s former aide Bryan Pagliano said Wednesday that his client intends to invoke his Fifth Amendment right in response to questions from the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack. After serving as the technology director for Clinton’s 2008 campaign, Pagliano worked in the State Department’s information-technology department from 2009 to 2013. During that time he helped set up Clinton’s private email server.
It’s unclear how that could be potentially incriminating, but Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, painted this as a sign that the entire investigation is a political witch hunt. “Although multiple legal experts agree there is no evidence of criminal activity, it is certainly understandable that this witness’s attorneys advised him to assert his Fifth Amendment rights, especially given the onslaught of wild and unsubstantiated accusations by Republican presidential candidates, members of Congress and others based on false leaks about the investigation,” Cummings said. “Their insatiable desire to derail Secretary Clinton’s presidential campaign at all costs has real consequences for any serious congressional effort.”
