Clinton IT aide ordered to produce immunity agreement

A federal judge has ordered a former State Department IT expert to hand over the immunity agreement he has reportedly reached with the Justice Department as part of the investigation connected to Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

The order late on Friday afternoon postpones Bryan Pagliano’s deposition with conservative watchdog organization Judicial Watch until further notice. The interview had been scheduled to take place on Monday.

{mosads}Pagliano’s lawyers have said that he had been planning to assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. 

But on Friday, Judge Emmet Sullivan declared that Pagliano’s lawyers need to file a legal memorandum outlining the legal authority for him to claim plead the Fifth, “including requisite details pertaining to the scope of Mr. Pagliano’s reported immunity agreement with the government.”

The order will likely shed some light on the terms of Pagliano’s agreement with the Justice Department, which was seen as a potential vulnerability for Clinton in the FBI’s probe. Law enforcement officials are exploring whether Clinton and her aides mishandled classified information through the use of her private server.

And, for the time being, the order forestalls Pagliano from having to sit before Judicial Watch lawyers and decline to answer their questions.

In a statement, Tom Fitton, the organization’s president, called the Friday afternoon order “an important step to getting more answers from Mr. Pagliano about Hillary Clinton’s email system.”

Pagliano had previously pleaded the Fifth before the House Select Committee on Benghazi.