I didn't do it?

BY: Alyssa Canobbio  
March 9, 2016 1:24 pm

Attorney General Loretta Lynch could not confirm that Bryan Pagliano would receive immunity for his testimony on the set-up of Hillary Clinton’s private server during her time as secretary of state Wednesday.

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) prefaced his question to Lynch that he had been asking about Clinton’s emails prior to her run for president. Grassley said that he was interested in the setup longtime senior aide Huma Abedin and the possibility of a conflict of interest.

Grassley pointed out that Lynch had not answered the committee’s question on the status of the investigation into Clinton’s server.

“Does the immunity agreement contain a provision requiring that staffer to cooperate with all government inquiries including committees as I had requested, and if not, why not?” Grassley asked. “Would you provide a copy of that agreement to the committee?”

The Washington Post reported that an official from the FBI had granted Pagliano immunity for his cooperation in the investigation into Clinton’s home-brewed server. Pagliano had previously invoked his Fifth Amendment right in a House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Lynch said that she would be providing a response to Grassley’s letter in writing and did not want to get ahead of the issues that he had raised.

“I believe you had asked for a copy of that document, we typically do not provide copies of documents as part of ongoing investigations but we are preparing a response to your letter on those issues,” Lynch said.

Lynch said that normally the Department of Justice did not go into the details of agreements that the department has with witnesses in any matter when it comes to ongoing investigations.

“What I will say is that my response to this is the same as my response to other questions about other matter whether now or whether I was a U.S. attorney or whether I was line assistant and the consistency with which the department handles the ongoing matters whether they involve someone with a famous last name or not is something that we take very seriously,” Lynch said.

Lynch said that the department’s desire to not address this matter in open congressional hearings or with the press is not to evade questions but is a standard operating procedure with ongoing investigations. She added that this was how the public maintained confidence in the department.

FBI director James Comey had previously said that he was personally involved with the investigation into Clinton’s server but could not give an exact date on when the investigation would be complete.