This Aide Set Up Hillary's Email Server

Investigations into the private email server that was utilized by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state continue this month, as the House Select Committee and several other congressional committees, including the Benghazi Committee, will hear testimony regarding the email server and the 2012 attack on Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead. The committees will hear from a number of Clinton's former State Department aides this month, and Clinton is schedule to testify for the Benghazi Committee in October. One subpoenaed aide, however, has already invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not testify: Dan Pagliano, a former Clinton aide, will not testify regarding the Benghazi attack in the Committee's hearing.

Pagliano is a person of great interest in this hearing, as he is the aide who set up the now infamous server used by Clinton while she was secretary of state. Pagliano also maintained and managed Clinton's server after setting it up in 2009, according to Politico. Pagliano's attorneys have noted that while the decision not to testify or be interviewed might seem controversial given the heat surrounding Clinton's emails and her private server, Representative Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, explained that he felt Pagliano's decision was "understandable," noting political tensions in Washington, D.C. regarding "the onslaught of wild and unsubstantiated accusations by Republican presidential candidates, members of Congress, and others based on false leaks about the investigation."

The Washington Post was the first to obtain and discuss the contents of the letter from Pagliano's attorneys on Wednesday, about a month after Pagliano was subpoenaed. In addition to noting that Pagliano would be pleading the fifth, Politico further reported Thursday that the letter also stated that he would not turn over documents to House Committees, due to an ongoing FBI investigation. The Roanoke Times reported Thursday that aides who were testifying anonymously were not pleased that Pagliano had decided against testifying in the committee hearings.

Regarding the House investigation, a spokesman for Clinton's presidential campaign, Nick Merrill, stated that Clinton and her team "have been confident from the beginning that Clinton's use of a personal email was allowed and that she did not send or receive anything marked classified, facts confirmed by the State Department and the inspector general [of the State Department]." Merrill also stated that Clinton encouraged all of her former aides, Pagliano included, to cooperate and testify.