Missing Emails: Plot Thickens in Clinton Scandal
The Republican National Committee has sued the State Department for failing to fully respond to their public records request, claiming that the agency mysteriously refused to provide them with emails sent or received by Bryan Pagliano, a former aide to Hillary Clinton. This week, the State Department responded to that lawsuit with a curious excuse: Namely, that they could not find any emails that matched that description.
Pagliano worked in the State Department alongside Clinton for the duration of her tenure as secretary of state, but apparently he never used his work email. Naturally, this struck some Republicans as fishy.
Raj Shah, the RNC spokesman, added, “It’s hard to believe that an IT staffer who set up Hillary Clinton’s reckless email server never sent or received a single work-related email in the four years he worked at the State Department,” said RNC spokesman Raj Shah. “Such records might shed light on his role in setting up Clinton’s server, and why he was granted immunity by the FBI. But it seems that his emails were either destroyed or never turned over, adding yet another layer to the secrecy surrounding his role.”
What’s more, Pagliano did actually send and receive email. Only, the State Department could only find emails dated after Clinton resigned from her post in 2012. How wonderfully convenient.
One unconfirmed theory is that Pagliano, like his boss, used a personal email account during his time at the State Department. That would fit right in with the fact that he was paid for his IT work on Clinton’s server throughout the duration of his government employment. Payments he did not disclose as required by law.
Pagliano, who took the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying in front of Congress last year, has been granted immunity by the FBI. They interviewed Pagliano several months ago, and insiders have characterized his statement as damaging to Hillary Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton’s reckless attempt to skirt government transparency laws with her secret email server jeopardized our national security by exposing classified information on more than two thousand occasions,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday.
Sadly, we all know how this is going to end. The Obama administration doesn’t have the fortitude to bring charges against the Democratic nominee, especially in a year where it would give the White House to Donald Trump. We will have to hope that the American people are smart enough to realize that the fix is in.