Report: State Department Can’t Find Any Texts, Emails Between IT Aide and Clinton

The Hillary Clinton email saga took another turn on Monday.

Lawyers for the Republican Party have filed a court claim that the State Department is maintaining that they cannot locate any text messages sent to or from, nor emails received or sent by technological staffer Bryan Pagliano to the Democratic presidential nominee while she was Secretary of State.

The GOP lawyers claim that the State Department advised them that their search for Clinton-related texts, instant messages, and emails to and from Pagliano all came up empty for the period between May 2009 and February 2013.

Pagliano was allegedly on Clinton’s private payroll and tasked with maintaining the private server at the heart of the controversy. He took the Fifth Amendment during the House Benghazi Committee hearings last year.

In response to the filing, State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau released a statement that claimed the agency disagrees with numerous assertions made in the filing, and that they would fight in court. The statement went on to read:

“The Department has searched for Mr. Pagliano’s email pst file and has not located one that covers the time period of Secretary Clinton’s tenure. To be clear, the Department does have records related to Mr. Pagliano and we are working with Congress and FOIA requesters to provide relevant material. The Department has located a pst from Mr. Pagliano’s recent work at the Department as a contractor, but the files are from after Secretary Clinton left the Department. We are continuing to search for Mr. Pagliano’s emails which the Department may have otherwise retained.”