Attorney General Loretta Lynch declined Wednesday to confirm that an immunity deal was offered to the State Department staffer who set up a private email server for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“We don’t discuss the specifics of any ongoing investigation,” Ms. Lynch told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “With respect to the procedure relating to any specific witness, I would not be able to comment on the interaction between that witness and the department.”
The comments came after Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, asked Ms. Lynch whether the Justice Department had signed off on the immunity offer to former State Department computer tech Bryan Pagliano in exchange for cooperation with the investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.
Later during the hearing, Ms. Lynch was asked by Sen. Charles Grassley whether she could provide copies of the immunity agreement to the committee. The Iowa Republican recently had asked Mr. Pagliano to appear before the committee to discuss the server, which he installed in Ms. Clinton’s New York home in 2009, and Ms. Clinton’s personal email account.
Ms. Lynch said she planned to respond to Mr. Grassley’s requests in writing, but cautioned that the Justice Department generally does not provide copies of documents that are part of ongoing investigations and that she wouldn’t go into detail on agreements made with cooperating witnesses.
Last year, Mr. Pagliano asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in his decision not to answer questions about the private email server in the face of a subpoena from lawmakers.
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On Tuesday, Mr. Pagliano’s attorney, Mark MacDougall, declined to comment on the matter.
As part of their probe of the email server, the existence of which was revealed as a result of inquiries about Ms. Clinton’s communications regarding the Benghazi, Libya attack, FBI investigators are expected to determine whether the handling of highly sensitive government information on the private email server constitutes a crime.
Ms. Lynch also was asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, whether she had spoken with President Obama or White House officials about the ongoing investigation.
“No sir, I have not,” Ms. Lynch replied.
When pressed on how White House spokesman Josh Earnest has characterized the investigation and what he was basing those assessments on, Ms. Lynch said she was “not aware of the source of his information.”
“It is my hope that when it comes to ongoing investigations that we all would stay silent,” she said.
In his opening statement to the committee, Mr. Grassley indicated that whether or not the investigation results in charges being brought, he believes that the investigation findings should be made public.
“The public has a right to know the facts, even if those facts don’t result in a prosecution,” he said.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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