WASHINGTON � Cheryl Mills, a longtime lawyer and adviser to
Hillary Rodham Clinton, testified before a Congressional
committee on Thursday morning about Mrs. Clinton�s personal
email account and the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

The panel took a lunch break at noon and the questioning
continued shortly before 1 p.m.

As Ms. Mills was being interviewed behind closed doors, the
panel�s top Democrat, Representative Elijah E. Cummings, called
on the committee�s Republican chairman to release a copy of Ms.
Mills� testimony. She had asked to testify in public, but the
Republicans rejected that request, saying they had conducted all
of their interviews in private.

�The entire public does not deserve to have leaks that are taken
out of context, and leaving the wrong impression,� Mr. Cummings
said to a group of reporters assembled near the interview.

It is not clear whether the committee�s chairman, Trey Gowdy,
will release the transcript. After Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime
adviser to Mrs. Clinton, testified before the panel in June, Mr.
Gowdy declined to grant Mr. Cummings� request to make the
transcript public.

Before Thursday�s hearing began, Mr. Gowdy told reporters why he
had insisted that the Mills interview be done in private.

�If you�re serious about getting the most amount of information,
you are going to get it in a transcribed interview session, not
in a public session where members are limited to five or 10
minutes,� Mr. Gowdy said. �So we have not had a public fact
finding interview with a single witness, and I�m not going to
treat her any differently.�

On Wednesday it was revealed that Byran Pagliano, a former
information technology official at the State Department who
helped set up the server that housed Mrs. Clinton�s private
email account, plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment right in
response to questions from the committee. Mr. Pagliano�s lawyer
declined to comment.

A Clinton campaign aide said that Mr. Pagliano�s decision was
�both understandable and disappointing to us, because we believe
he has every reason to be transparent about his I.T. assistance.�

�We had hoped Bryan would also agree to answer any questions
from the committee and had recently encouraged him to grant the
committee�s request for an interview,� the aide said.

The aide added, �Bryan is an utter professional and a wonderful
young man who does not live in the public eye and understandably
may not wish to be drawn into a political spectacle.�

Mr. Gowdy addressed the issue briefly before stepping into the
interview. �You�re free to claim whatever inference you want
from the fact that� he does not want to testify, Mr. Gowdy said.

Mr. Cummings said he was disappointed that Mr. Pagliano did not
want to testify.

�When you look at all the wild accusations that have been made
in regards to this committee, Benghazi, Hillary Clinton, I�m
sure his lawyer made a determination that he didn�t want him to
get caught up in that,� Mr. Cummings said. �He certainly has the
right. Am I surprised he has decided to take the Fifth? No, I am
not surprised. Am I disappointed? Yes. I would love to have
heard what he had to say.�

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/us/hillary-clinton-email-
benghazi.html?_r=0
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