Hillary's Email Tech Must Provide Answers

There’s that name Clinton again. It just keeps popping up in connection with questions concerning crimes, classified information mishandling, secrecy, lies, and purloined government documents.

And as new names pop up in connection with the Hillary Clinton (and Obama administration) email scandal, Judicial Watch follows the leads as only Judicial Watch can.

We have just filed yet another Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking records concerning the service and maintenance of former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Specifically, Judicial Watch seeks records that will show whether Bryan Pagliano was hired or paid by the State Department to maintain the email server used by Clinton and her aides to conduct official State Department business and whether the State Department spent taxpayer money to manage the email server.

Pagliano, Hillary Clinton’s IT director during her 2008 run for the presidency, was hired by her State Department in 2009.

Our team filed a simple FOIA request on August 5, the day after The Washington Post reported Pagliano, while employed at the State Department, “continued to act as the lead specialist responsible for [Clinton’s email system]…with Pagliano summoned at various times to fix problems.

Notably, the system crashed for days after New York was hit by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.” Judicial Watch’s request seeks:

• Records concerning the hiring of Pagliano.

• Time sheets, calendars, or similar records of Pagliano.

• Travel records to/from Chappaqua, NY. Such records include, but are not limited to, expense reports, reimbursement forms, and travel logs.

• Pagliano’s records concerning, regarding, or relating to the maintenance of former Secretary Clinton’s email server. Such records include, but are not limited to, expense reports, reimbursement forms, and maintenance logs.

• Records of communications between Pagliano and any official, officer, or employee of the Office of the Secretary concerning former Secretary Clinton’s email server.

Judicial Watch requested expedited processing (which is DC-speak for “hurry up”), which the State Department agreed to on Aug. 13: "Because a compelling need for the requested information exists . . . Specifically, Judicial Watch has at least 15 cases pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia related to Secretary Clinton’s email practices while Secretary of State.

The information at issue in this request will shed light on whether the State Department was involved in the operation of Secretary Clinton’s email server."

Though the State Department agreed with Judicial Watch to expedite this request, the agency has failed to provide any documents or otherwise comply with the Freedom of Information Act.

Reports state Pagliano plans to refuse to provide testimony to Congress by asserting his Fifth Amendment rights. So much for the Clinton apologist claims that the Justice Department/FBI investigation into her mishandling of classified material on her alias email system is not criminal.

Mrs. Clinton’s argument that her “server” was private fails on many levels, especially if Mr. Pagliano, a State Department employee, was paid by taxpayers to take care of it. We must wonder if Mr. Pagliano has emails from the Clinton server.

The Obama State Department is in cover-up mode, refusing to comply with federal law and honor our request about whether its employee was responsible for the Clinton server maintenance. This is yet another example of the Obama administration’s complicity in the Clinton email scandal.

Hillary Clinton, immediately following our lawsuit, said that she personally paid Pagliano to handle her server issues. This, if true (and that is a big “if”) raises all sorts of other issues.

How many of other State Department employees did she pay on the sly? Was the alleged income reported as required by law? I’m sure you can think of a few more.

It was back in March that the news initially broke that Hillary Clinton used a non-government email during her four years as secretary of state.

Let us not lose sight that JW FOIA lawsuits forced Hillary Clinton’s separate email system into the light of day. And that it was our litigation that forced Mrs. Clinton to do what no other congressional committee, FBI, or Justice Department investigation has done — submit information, under penalty of perjury, about her email system.

Judicial Watch’s work on this scandal is now so vast that I can’t possibly tell you everything that’s going on in all our twenty plus lawsuits and countless investigations.

Tom Fitton is the president of Judicial Watch. He is a nationally recognized expert on government corruption. A former talk radio and television host and analyst, Tom is well known across the country as a national spokesperson for the conservative cause. He has been quoted in Time, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and most every other major newspaper in the country. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.