The Justice Department has granted immunity to a former State Department staffer, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, according to a senior law enforcement official.
The official said the FBI had secured the cooperation of Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009.
As the FBI looks to wrap up its investigation in the coming months, agents are likely to want to interview Clinton and her senior aides about the decision to use a private server, how it was set up, and whether any of the participants knew they were sending classified information in emails, current and former officials said.
The inquiry comes against a political backdrop in which Clinton is the favorite to secure the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
So far, there is no indication that prosecutors have convened a grand jury in the email investigation to subpoena testimony or documents, which would require the participation of a U.S. attorney’s office.
Spokesmen at the FBI and Justice Department would not discuss the investigation. Pagliano’s attorney, Mark J. MacDougall, also declined to comment.
In a statement, Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said: “As we have said since last summer, Secretary Clinton has been cooperating with the Department of Justice’s security inquiry, including offering in August to meet with them to assist their efforts if needed.”
He also said the campaign is “pleased” that Pagliano, who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights before a congressional panel in September, is now cooperating with prosecutors. The campaign had encouraged Pagliano to testify before Congress.
As part of the inquiry, law enforcement officials will look at the potential damage had the classified information in the emails been exposed. The Clinton campaign has described the probe as a security review. But current and former officials in the FBI and at the Justice Department have said investigators are trying to determine whether a crime was committed.
“There was wrongdoing,” said a former senior law enforcement official. “But was it criminal wrongdoing?”
Clinton has since apologized for what happened: “Yes, I should have used two email addresses, one for personal matters and one for my work at the State Department. Not doing so was a mistake. I’m sorry about it, and I take full responsibility.”
Any decision to charge someone would involve Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who told Congress when asked last month about the email inquiry: “That matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents, as well as the career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice. They follow the evidence, they look at the law and they’ll make a recommendation to me when the time is appropriate.”
She added, “We will review all the facts and all the evidence and come to an independent conclusion as how to best handle it.”
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'You've got to stand up to it': what Hillary Clinton told Gillard on public scrutiny
- July 5, 2013
Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton told then prime minister Julia Gillard she had to stick up for herself in the face of events from her past being dredged up and used against her.
Ms Gillard and Mrs Clinton had a private meeting in Perth late last year which Ms Gillard recounted to journalist Anne Summers in a piece published on Friday afternoon.
In what would turn out to be Ms Gillard's last in-depth interview before she lost the prime ministership, she revealed to Dr Summers how she had spoken about the added pressure of being 'The First' with Barack Obama, and how Mrs Clinton had discussed with her the issue of being a high profile woman.
"We did have a discussion about where our media cycle was stuck then, which was this relentless opposition questioning about events the best part of 20 years ago," Ms Gillard said in the interview, which took place on June 10 this year.
At the time the pair met Ms Gillard was facing questions over her role in the AWU affair dating back to her time as a lawyer with Slater and Gordon in the 1990s.
Mrs Clinton told Ms Gillard that she had ''seen this movie before'', a reference to the questions the Clintons faced over the Whitewater development scandal.
Mrs Clinton offered Ms Gillard the following advice: "You've got to stand up to it and be clear about it and name it for what it is because the temptation is to say, 'Look this is so absurd, it'll die a death', whereas these things unfortunately don't die a death."
The then prime minister also revealed how she discussed race and gender with US President Barack Obama saying the two shared a bond based on their unique understanding of what it was like to be the first to reach high office.
Ms Gillard said Mr Obama's experience as the first African American president and her status as Australia's first female prime minister helped them to understand each other.
"I think there is a little bit of a spark there about the sense of being 'The First' and consequently having to deal with things that someone else who's in your position has never had to," Ms Gillard said.
Although Ms Gillard said she admired Mrs Clinton for being "very fearless in putting forward her values" she was ambivalent when asked whether or not the former secretary of state should run for the presidency in 2016.
"I almost don't know what to wish for her," Ms Gillard said.
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And Ms Gillard is correct, I think there is a little bit of a spark there too.
