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Washington — Hillary Clinton used personal funds to pay a state department staffer to maintain an email server she used for both personal and government matters when she was US secretary of state, The Washington Post said on Saturday, citing a campaign official.
The unidentified official for Clinton’s campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination told The Post the pay arrangement with Bryan Pagliano ensured taxpayer dollars were not spent on a private server that was also used by Clinton’s family and aides to former President Bill Clinton.
Clinton, a former US senator and first lady, has been criticised for using the unsecured server to conduct government business when she was the top US diplomat from 2009 to 2013 and for how she handled classified information.
Pagliano this week declined to produce documents and testify before a House of Representatives committee about the server, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Pagliano was IT director for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and went to work for the state department when Clinton took up the cabinet job.
The Post reported the Clintons paid Pagliano $5,000 for computer services before he joined the state department, citing a financial disclosure form he filed in April 2009.
Clinton has in the past hired staff to work for her simultaneously in public and private capacities, most notably top aide Huma Abedin, the Post said.
The Clinton campaign did not immediately return a request for comment on the report on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush has said he would back fellow Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump if the businessman-turned-politician wins the party’s nomination for the 2016 presidential election and Clinton is the Democratic nominee.
Asked if he would support Trump as Republican nominee over Clinton in the November 2016 contest, Bush said, “I would, of course. We need to be unified. We need to win,” Bush, the former Florida governor, said in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America television programme, one day after Trump told the same show he would back Bush over Clinton.
Bush and Trump have been engaged in public attacks on each another as they vie for the party’s nomination.
Trump has spent weeks taunting Bush, one of his closest rivals in public opinion polls in the large Republican field. The real estate mogul and television personality has mocked Bush as “low-energy”, and this week criticised him for answering a question in Spanish.
The Bush campaign initially had avoided engaging in a war of words with Trump. But Bush’s advisers have signalled a new effort to fight back with campaign ads and social media efforts.
Bush took issue with Trump’s tactics and called on his rival to tone down his attacks. Trump has made controversial remarks about immigration and Latinos. Bush, whose wife was born in Mexico, told ABC that diversity adds vitality to the country.
“I think Donald Trump trying to insult his way to the presidency is not going to work. People want an uplifting, hopeful message,” he said.
Bush added that Trump should “figure out a way to lessen the divisive language, the hurtful language and talk about the aspirations of the American people, rather than trying to prey on their fears”. — AFP
Online Reporter