A former State Department employee who worked on Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server tried to beat back a subpoena this week from the House Benghazi panel, with his lawyer saying that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights to avoid incriminating himself.
Bryan Pagliano had worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009,
The Washington Post reports.
The lawyer, Mark MacDougall, sent a letter to the committee on Monday. A copy was obtained by the Post. MacDougall declined to comment further.
"While we understand that Mr. Pagliano’s response to this subpoena may be controversial in the current political environment, we hope that the members of the Select Committee will respect our client’s right to invoke the protections of the Constitution," MacDougall wrote.
Two other Senate panels have also sought testimony from Pagliano in the past week, the letter stated. Sources told the Post that they were the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security Committee.
The Judiciary Committee confirmed to the Post Wednesday that it had subpoenaed Pagliano.
South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the Benghazi committee, had subpoenaed Pagliano on Aug. 11, ordering him to appear on Sept. 10, the Post reports.
The chairman also sought documents relating to the servers or systems controlled or owned by Clinton from 2009 to 2013.
Pagliano worked in the State Department's information-technology department from May 2009 until February 2013. He left when Clinton stepped down.
He now works for a technology contractor that provides services to the State Department, the Post reports.
The Benghazi committee's top Democrat, Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, slammed Gowdy for unilaterally issuing the subpoena.
He told the Post that pursuing a low-level aide was another indication that the chairman was using the committee for political purposes amid Clinton's run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
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