A pair of Senate Republicans want Attorney General Loretta Lynch to weigh in on lawmakers potentially compelling a former staffer for Hillary Clinton to testify about the former secretary of State’s private email server.
GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) sent a letter to Lynch on Monday asking if the Justice Department would consider Bryan Pagliano — a former State Department staffer responsible for maintaining Clinton’s private server — to have waived his Fifth Amendments rights if he or his attorneys spoke with lawmakers during a closed meeting.
{mosads}The senators want to speak privately with Pagliano, or his attorneys, as they weigh whether or not to compel him to testify in exchange for immunity. They added in their letter that they believe a private meeting would not mean the former staffer had waived his rights.
The two senators previously sent a letter to Pagliano, asking that his attorneys meet with Judiciary Committee, overseen by Grassley, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Johnson.
But the Republicans noted in Monday’s letter to Lynch that Palgiano’s attorneys believe that a private conservation “creates the risk that he will later be deemed to have waived his constitutional protections.”
Grassley and Johnson are also seeking information from the State Department, including trying to interview staffers who worked with Palgiano, but said that “the State Department has been extremely unresponsive to previous requests.”
“This leaves the Committees with very little information on which to base a decision as important as whether to seek an immunity order to compel Mr. Pagliano’s testimony,” they added.
Clinton has faced mountaing questions about her use of a private email server, including fielding inquiries from lawmakers and multiple government investigations.
The two Republican senators want details on any investigations, asking Lynch if the FBI or the Justice Department are conducting a investigation, criminal or not, into the email server, and, if so, if Palgiano is a subject of the probe.
They also want to know if the FBI or the department has a criminal or non-criminal investigation open on Palgiano, and want Lynch to guarantee that if the Justice Department offers immunity or reaches a plea bargin with the former staffer that it includes that he cooperate with congressional investigations.
If Lynch will not guarantee that, the Republican senators ask that she explain why.