The former IT staffer planning to plead the Fifth when called to testify about Hillary Clinton's private emails is "yet another blow" to Hillary Clinton's campaign and "does not look good," NBC reporters said Thursday.
Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton's private server at the State Department and for her 2008 presidential campaign, said he would not appear before the Benghazi Select Committee for a deposition on Sept. 10 and also would not produce documents responsive to the congressional subpoena.
"This is yet another blow to the Clinton campaign," Welker said on The Today Show. "A Clinton aide says the campaign encouraged Pagliano to testify and called his decision not to 'understandable but disappointing.'"
Savannah Guthrie interviewed Meet the Press host Chuck Todd about the latest development, and they agreed the appearance of impropriety was politically damaging.
"We don't know what this man's lawyer told him to do, but as a political matter for Hillary Clinton, to have a staffer who says I'd better not testify because I don't want to incriminate myself, that does not look good," Guthrie said.
"In the court of public opinion, when you plead the Fifth, as far as the political world is concerned, you're already admitting to some potential wrongdoing, regardless of the legal part of this," Todd said. "That's what makes this investigation potentially damaging to Hillary Clinton."
Todd said he didn't know if the email controversy is playing into Joe Biden's decision whether or not to enter the 2016 presidential race, but if it is, Todd called it a major reason to join the fray.
"The Clinton campaign may think it has its arms around this political problem, but when you cannot control different people in this situation who may decide, again, what's in the political interest of Hillary Clinton is not in my legal interest, then you know you have a problem down the road," Todd said.
Clinton has claimed repeatedly she never sent nor received email marked classified on her private server, but investigations have shown hundreds of emails released by the State Department are tagged that way. Her polling numbers have suffered throughout the email saga, with a recent poll showing 53 percent of respondents have an unfavorable opinion of her.