Hillary Wasn't Close to IT Expert (Brian Pagliano) Who Managed Her Server [View all]

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Last edited Tue May 31, 2016, 08:57 PM - Edit history (1)

By Julian Hattem - 05/31/16 05:30 PM EDT--The Hill

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared to keep an arms-length relationship with the IT expert believed to have set up and maintained her private server, according to her former chief of staff.

During a marathon seven-hour deposition at law offices in Washington, D.C., Cheryl Mills said she couldn’t recall a single instance in which Bryan Pagliano interacted with Clinton or her top aides.

“In my presence, I don't recall occasions where he interacted with the secretary,” Mills said. “In my presence, I don't recall him engaging with folks in the secretary's office.”

The comments shed new light on the relationship between the Democratic presidential front-runner and Pagliano, who has been granted immunity in exchange for his cooperation with the ongoing FBI probe connected to Clinton’s private server.

Mills’s deposition Friday came as part of an open-records lawsuit related to Clinton’s server by the conservative watchdog organization Judicial Watch. A lengthy transcript of the interview, which lasted from 9:25 a.m. to 4:12 p.m., was released Tuesday afternoon.

Mills’s testimony adds to the scrutiny of Clinton’s use of a private email server, which was thrust into the spotlight last week by a scathing State Department Office of Inspector General report. The watchdog analysis said Clinton violated State Department policies by using a personal email address housed on a private server while secretary of State, and that the arrangement would have been blocked had she sought permission.

The server was previously used by Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, Mills noted. However, she could not recall how she learned about the arrangement or whether there was any effort to move Hillary Clinton off of the system.

Echoing a defense used by Clinton, Mills said she assumed that the former secretary of State was complying with federal record-keeping rules by emailing people on their official State Department email accounts, where the messages would have been preserved.

“I assumed — I now know inaccurately — that records that were on a State system were ones that were kept forever,” she claimed. “And I thought since the secretary's practice was to email people on their State records, that there was resident in the department a set of records with respect to her work at the department.

Continued at:

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/281782-clinton-didnt-appear-close-to-it-aide-who-managed-email-server