Washington - Efforts by an aide who maintained former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton's private email server to conceal alleged corruption involving the Clinton Foundation demonstrate Clinton isn't qualified to be the next president, the Donald Trump campaign's senior communications adviser, Jason Miller, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The fact that the individuals who maintained Hillary Clinton's secret email server pleaded the Fifth shows once again why she can't be trusted in the White House,” Miller said.
By invoking their rights under the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects people from self-incrimination, individuals can refuse to testify before a court or other legal bodies.
“This reckless scheme, which began as an attempt to conceal corruption between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton's State Department, ultimately put national security at risk by exposing classified material on thousands of occasions,” Miller asserted.
A former Clinton IT aide, Bryan Pagliano, recently invoked the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer questions in a court-ordered deposition by the conservative group Judicial Watch.
Based on Clinton emails released so far, critics charge that individuals and groups who donated to the Clinton Foundation received preferential treatment from the US Department of State during the four years that Clinton led the agency.
Clinton and members of her presidential campaign staff have repeatedly denied the allegations.
Sputnik