State Department Staffer Got Extra Paycheck, Direct From Clintons

Family paid him out of its own pocket to maintain email server
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 5, 2015 12:51 PM CDT
State Department Staffer Got Extra Paycheck, Direct From Clintons
Hillary Clinton speaks at a news conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015.   (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

The Washington Post today sheds a little more light on how Hillary Clinton's infamous email operation worked while she was at the State Department. As you might expect, the word "unusual" is involved. It turns out that the Clintons paid a department staffer out of their own pocket to maintain the server, in addition to his official State Department duties. A Clinton campaign official depicts this is a good thing because it "ensured that taxpayer dollars were not spent on a private server that was shared by Clinton, her husband and their daughter as well as aides to the former president," in the words of the newspaper. The staffer, Bryan Pagliano, also got $5,000 from the Clintons to set up the server, but that was before he joined the State Department. He had previously worked as Clinton's IT chief during her 2008 run for president.

State Department employees at Pagliano's level are allowed to take outside work, though they're supposed to report the income, which he does not appear to have done, reports the Post. It's not clear how much maintenance work was required or how much additional income he got. "Bryan was hired by the Clinton family as a consultant in order to help out periodically with the management of the system in Chappaqua that hosted the family's emails," campaign spokesperson Nick Merrill said today, per CNN. At least three congressional panels are interested in having Pagliano testify, though he's pledged to take the Fifth if he appears. That could change if lawmakers guarantee him immunity from any potential legal trouble that arises, notes the Post. (Clinton, meanwhile, is sorry about all this email confusion.)

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