The FBI investigation into the transmission of classified information over Hillary Clinton’s private email server has entered a "dangerous phase" for the candidate, according to Fox News judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano.
With reports that federal prosecutors are preparing to question Clinton’s top aides about the server, Napolitano writes that Clinton will likely face a choice soon about whether to agree to an interview with law enforcement.
If Clinton consents to talk, any inconsistencies between her statements and the statements of her aides could create legal problems for the candidate and her inner circle. Napolitano writes that the FBI will also consider whether Clinton’s interview matches statements she has made publicly:
If she were to talk to federal prosecutors and FBI agents, they would catch her in many inconsistencies, as she has spoken with great deception in public about this case. She has, for example, stated many times that she used the private server so she could have one mobile device for all of her emails. The FBI knows she had four mobile devices. She has also falsely claimed publicly and under oath that she neither sent nor received anything "marked classified." The FBI knows that nothing is marked classified, and its agents also know that her unprotected secret server transmitted some of the nation’s gravest secrets.
The prosecutors and agents cannot be happy about her public lies and her repeated demeaning attitude about their investigation, and they would have an understandable animus toward her if she were to meet with them.
If she were to decline to be interviewed -- a prudent legal but treacherous political decision -- the feds would leak her rejection of their invitation, and political turmoil would break loose because one of her most imprudent and often repeated public statements in this case has been that she can't wait to talk to the FBI. That’s a lie, and the FBI knows it.
If Clinton declines to be interviewed, which many attorneys recommend if their client is a potential target of a criminal probe, she could face public backlash during the campaign. Clinton has repeatedly said she is open to cooperating and talking with the FBI as part of the investigation.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Monday that federal prosecutors are starting the interview process with Clinton’s top aides. Clinton’s IT staffer, Bryan Pagliano, has already been cooperating with investigators for several months.
Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova told the Washington Free Beacon this week that if prosecutors are in the interview phase, the investigation may not be completed for several more months.
"If they’re interviewing people, it’s probably into the summer," said diGenova.