Judge: FBI Is Conducting 'Criminal Investigation' Into Hillary Email Server

Image: Judge: FBI Is Conducting 'Criminal Investigation' Into Hillary Email Server (Wire Services Photo) 

By Cathy Burke   |   Tuesday, 14 Jun 2016




The FBI is conducting a "criminal investigation" into Hillary Clinton's private email server, a federal judge has declared – the first explicit confirmation refuting Clinton's referral to the probe as a "security review," reports say.

In a court filing Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the deposition of former State Department information technology specialist Bryan Pagliano – who helped set up Clinton's private email server – to go forward and be videotaped, the Washington Post reports. 

He declined, however, to make Pagliano's immunity agreement public.

"The privacy interests at stake are high because the government’s criminal investigation through which Mr. Pagliano received limited immunity is ongoing and confidential," Sullivan wrote in the new filing, the Daily Caller reports. 

"In the Court’s opinion, the need for public access to Mr. Pagliano’s agreement with the government is minimal. Mr. Pagliano’s immunity agreement has not previously been disclosed. Mr. Pagliano and the government object to disclosure of the immunity agreement," the judge added.

Pagliano's deposition is expected to take place before the end of June, Politico reports. 

Sullivan granted the request to depose Pagliano and about half a dozen other current and former Clinton aides in connection with a Freedom of Information Act suit filed by the conservative group Judicial Watch. 

The suit, seeking records about the employment arrangements of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin, was filed in 2013; the former secretary's exclusive use of a private email account for work purposes was first made known in March 2015.

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