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Man Who Ran Clinton’s Personal Email Server Worked for State Department
The man who set up and administered Hillary Clinton’s personal email server during her tenure as Secretary of State worked for the State Department. This adds ethical issues to the problems Clinton already faces, as well raising questions about a taxpayer-paid official conducting private business on our dime.
The FBI has begun looking into the security of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail setup. Also last week, the FBI contacted Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, with questions about the security of a thumb drive in his possession that contains copies of work e-mails Clinton sent during her time as secretary of state, some of which — according to the Inspectors General from State and the Intelligence Community — contain classified material.
According to the Washington Post, those briefed on the server state the hardware was purchased for use by Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign and installed at the Chappaqua home. That means any malware acquired under the conditions of the campaign migrated with the server.
Bryan Pagliano
More significantly, along with the new server came a technical specialist, Bryan Pagliano, pictured, who had worked as Clinton’s campaign’s IT director. According to federal campaign finance records, Pagliano was paid by Clinton’s Senate leadership PAC through April 2009. The next month, he went to work for the State Department as an IT specialist.
The people briefed on the server indicated that Pagliano continued to act as the lead specialist responsible for Clinton’s personal server even while he was employed by the Department of State. The e-mail system was not always reliable, these people said, with Pagliano summoned at various times to fix problems. Notably, the system crashed for days after New York was hit by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, while Hillary Clinton was still secretary of state. It is unclear what email system the secretary used to conduct the nation’s diplomatic business with during that period.
Responsibility for Clinton’s email system was moved to a private company, Platte River Networks in Denver, only in 2013, after Clinton left the State Department. That company either administered Clinton’s server in New York remotely, or operated a server for her in its own data warehouse. Either would have opened the hardware and its contents to a larger group.
Pagliano at State
Bryan Pagliano’s job at the State Department is confirmed on his LinkedIn page.
He lists his political-appointee position as “Serve as strategic advisor and special projects manager to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) / Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) overseeing the operations of the Information Resource Management (IRM) bureau.” Working at such a high level inside State’s IT structure assures that State’s most senior information officers knew about Clinton’s email setup, and apparently did not or were not able to stop it.
Pagliano’s Facebook page also shows his closeness to the Clintons (the third person is identified on Facebook as Carrie Pagliano):
We note that at the same of this writing, Pagliano’s Facebook page employs no security, meaning anyone may access all of its content. Odd move for a guy in charge of the Secretary of State’s email.
BONUS: The State Department’s Chief Information Officer, who should have stopped the Clinton email server? Well, well, she retired from State a few months before Hillary left, into a nice job at the IMF. It pays to be a winner!
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Helen Marshall said...
1Or maybe top DOS officials did not even try to stop the email setup? Is there any evidence that they cared?
08/5/15 12:09 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
2Forget this guy’s Linkedin profile. His form C should be very interesting. He has to be reporting income from multiple sources- employee of State and then work as an independent contractor with what claimed deductions?
Still, I think I’m headed for the Susan MacDougal work camp
Disabusing Hillary’s supporters of their blind support may not be possible.
08/5/15 5:10 PM | Comment Link
person unknown said...
3Where was the Bureau of Diplomatic Security? Where was Pat Kennedy? Why does HRC’s lawyer still apparently have a thumb drive(!) contain USG classified information?
08/5/15 6:47 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
4Yes, “person unknown,” all the questions the FBI, the media and Congress should be asking.
But are not.
08/5/15 7:56 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
5Whatever ethos the ruling elite follows is OK most working at or for DS, CIA, NSA, FBI, SS, Congress. Their oath is to the status quo of the ruling elite. They don’t want to rock the boat-they like their paychecks to come on time.
08/5/15 8:40 PM | Comment Link
person unknown said...
6Here’s an idea: if there are any readers of this blog who are current Department of State employees, could you get a copy of the current UNCLASSIFIED guide for information security and make it available either to this blog or directly to key media outlets?
This would help clarify issues such as when to use classified vs. unclassified systems and the need to properly label messages, the need to safeguard and frequently change passwords, any rules about using thumb drives and other removable storage and how classified material needs to be stored.
The existing guidelines for employees, to which they are held accountable, would help media understand just how many State Department rules the Clinton crew has apparently violated.
08/6/15 10:29 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
7“According to federal campaign finance records, Pagliano was paid by Clinton’s Senate leadership PAC through April 2009. The next month, he went to work for the State Department as an IT specialist…”
It is possible to hire people into State in just a month timespan. How many people wait several months to start a foreign or civil service assignment — that is, if they werent brought in as a contractor first.
ANother case – instead of reforming the civil service system, just keep breaking it and politicizing it
08/6/15 11:41 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
8And, not too surprising, there were alot of snafus. Why government offices do not work as well as private sector — people bring in their friends, not necessarily the most qualified person
08/6/15 11:43 AM | Comment Link
WhatDoIKnow said...
9Also, if he was a COR on any “maintenance” or other contracts for the server he should have filed an OGE-450 with L. It was taking 6 months to get interagency clearances vetted, let alone moving from a contractor to a GS position. How he did it in less than a month, HR should investigate.
08/8/15 1:17 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
10“How he did it in less than a month, HR should investigate.”
WDIK – It’s a good question – the sad thing is, HR would be investigating itself. Good thing they have proved to be such honest brokers … and here we are
08/15/15 12:12 PM | Comment Link
Stephanie kinney said...
11Forget about asking HR! It’s a major part of State’s problem as chief facilitator and legitimizer of the destruction of the FS and the spread of
Contractors, interns in charge, Special Reps and politicization down to the Office Director level. Handmaiden hardly describes it.
09/3/15 11:11 PM | Comment Link
Hillary’s Server Arrested (Satire) | Ghosts of Tom Joad - Peter Van Buren said...
12[…] initial confusion that the “server” was the State Department political appointee moonlighting as Clinton’s sysadm, and later false reports that the “server” was actually a […]
09/4/15 7:25 AM | Comment Link