FBI interviews loom for Clinton, aides, says report

The FBI is arranging interviews with some of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides over her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of State, a new report says.

Prosecutors are also expected to seek an interview with the Democratic presidential front-runner herself, though nothing has been scheduled so far, according to the Los Angeles Times.

{mosads}No dates have been set for questioning Clinton’s advisers either, but a federal prosecutor in recent weeks has notified their lawyers that such meetings are pending, according to the Times report.

It cited two people familiar with the probe, adding that the timing for speaking with Clinton remains unclear.

The email controversy has dogged Clinton’s campaign even as she has moved closer to winning the Democratic nomination. The report on the FBI’s push for interviews suggests its probe will continue for weeks, making it more likely the issue will not be resolved before the end of the primary. 

“The interviews are critical to understand the volume of information that they have accumulated,” said James McJunkin, former head of the FBI’s Washington field office.

“They are likely nearing the end of the investigation and the agents need to interview these people to put the information in context. They will then spend time aligning these statements with other information, emails, classified documents, etc., to determine whether there is a prosecutable case.”

Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nod, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has not used the email issue as an attack line. But in a general election, it will surely be used by the Republican nominee. 

Clinton has said it was an error in judgment to have the private server but has argued she did nothing illegal and that no classified material was sent over the server.

The FBI formally confirmed that it was investigating Clinton’s private email server in a letter released early last month.

FBI records official David Hardy told a federal court last Friday that his agency has since had few interactions with Clinton or her confidants during its investigation of her email server.

The Justice Department granted immunity earlier this month to a former State employee who helped Clinton build her personal storage device. Bryan Pagliano has agreed to work with the FBI in exchange for not facing any possible criminal charges, according to a law enforcement official on March 2.

Critics says Clinton’s use of the server at State prevented accountability of her tenure there and may have exposed sensitive national intelligence to bad actors.

She has since given State approximately 30,000 emails from her time in office detailing her work as the nation’s top diplomat.

Another trove roughly the same size, which Clinton maintains documented personal information, was deleted.