As Twitchy reported, the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), convened Sept. 13 to examine the preservation of State Department federal records under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In attendance were Platte River Networks technicians Bill Thornton and Paul Combetta, who is believed to be the person in the FBI’s notes who claimed to have had the “oh sh*t!” moment when he realized he’d deleted Hillary Clinton’s email archive — and then “accidentally” wiped the drive using the software BleachBit to render it unrecoverable.
Not in attendance was Clinton’s IT aide Bryan Pagliano, who ignored a subpoena to appear. The committee continued its meeting Thursday, again without the pleasure of Pagliano’s company.
Bryan Pagliano again a no show at House Oversight – panel will move to hold him in Contempt over Clinton emails
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) September 22, 2016
The committee voted 19‑15 Thursday to send a resolution to the full House of Representatives to hold him in contempt of Congress.
House oversight panel votes to hold Clinton IT chief in contempthttps://t.co/QdPc63BkvN
— Ram Ramgopal (@RamCNN) September 22, 2016
The GOP didn’t hesitate to make a big deal of the vote.
BREAKING: House panel voted to hold Bryan Pagliano, @HillaryClinton's former IT staffer, in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify. pic.twitter.com/2RXEIJg6rt
— GOP (@GOP) September 22, 2016
House Oversight votes 19-15 to hold former Clinton tech aide Bryan Pagliano in contempt 4 not showing at 2 hearings https://t.co/tc08FAytYu
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) September 22, 2016
.@jasoninthehouse on holding Bryan Pagliano in contempt of Congress: Subpoenas are not optional.
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) September 22, 2016
.@jasoninthehouse: Mr. Pagliano is a key fact witness in our investigation of Sec. Clinton's use of a private server to conduct gov business
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) September 22, 2016
Another vocal critic of Pagliano was Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).
.@TGowdySC: Issue no. 1 is does a witness under subpoena need to show up?
The answer is yes.
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) September 22, 2016
.@TGowdySC: I want to know whether the DOJ granted immunity to the person who destroyed federal records after a subpoena was in place. pic.twitter.com/cs6Assxxo6
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) September 22, 2016
As for the Democrats, not a single one on the committee joined Republicans in the contempt vote. Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking Democrat on the committee, again suggested an election year photo-op was the only reason the committee was still discussing Clinton’s emails.
.@RepCummings: This is nothing but a blatantly partisan Republican attack on the Democratic candidate for President
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) September 22, 2016
.@RepCummings: Today is our fifth day of “emergency” hearings on Hillary #Clintonemails in the past three weeks
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) September 22, 2016
.@RepCummings: As far as I can tell, the only emergency is that the #election2016 is approaching
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) September 22, 2016
.@RepCummings: This Republican frenzy is focused obsessively on Secretary #HillaryClinton for political reasons
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) September 22, 2016
.@RepCummings: This is an abuse of authority and #taxpayer dollars to inappropriately affect the presidential #election2016
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) September 22, 2016
.@RepCummings: I cannot vote for a resolution that's potentially so unethical it could subject Members or our staff to disciplinary action
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) September 22, 2016
So holding Pagliano in contempt for twice defying subpoenas to appear before the House Oversight Committee is the “unethical” part of the whole Clinton email saga?
Where is Pagliano, anyway?
* * *
Update:
Here’s some must-see video of Trey Gowdy laying down the rules.
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