WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors in the same office that successfully prosecuted 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui – and who would handle any Edward Snowden case, should he ever return to the country – are assisting in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia has been assisting in the probe for some months, with prosecutors sitting in on interviews and providing other guidance, the officials said. Their involvement is not indicative that charges are imminent or even likely, but if they were brought, Clinton would be facing a team that is no stranger to high-profile cases involving classified material.
Last year, for example, prosecutors in the district won a conviction of a former CIA officer who was involved in a highly secretive operation to give faulty nuclear plans to Iran and accused of leaking details of the effort to a reporter.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing probe. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment. Spokesmen for the Clinton campaign did not return an email message seeking comment for this article.
The investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server and the possible mishandling of classified information is in its final stages, and government lawyers and FBI investigators have in recent weeks been interviewing or seeking to interview her top aides with an eye on ultimately trying to talk to Clinton herself, U.S. officials said. Clinton’s spokesman has said repeatedly she is willing to sit down with investigators.
The Justice Department has granted immunity to at least one former State Department staffer, Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s private email server. There are no indications a grand jury has been convened in the case.
[READ ALSO: Hacker “Guccifer” Says He Has Breached Hillary Clinton’s Private Server]
D.C.-area lawyers commonly refer to the Eastern District of Virginia as the “rocket docket” for the speed with which cases move through it. The U.S. Attorney’s Office there has about 300 lawyers and other employees working in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk and Newport News and has long had a reputation as one of the most important federal prosecutor shops in the country.
The district is home to the CIA and the Pentagon, and its prosecutors often find themselves handling terrorism and national-security cases, including the Moussaoui trial.
The office is led by Dana Boente, a veteran federal prosecutor whom U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch earlier this year called one of the Justice Department’s “consummate utility players.” In addition to the prosecution of former Virginia governor Robert McDonnell, R, Boente also led the public corruption prosecutions of former congressman William Jefferson, D-La., and of former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, D, while he was serving a brief stint leading the office in New Orleans.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Matt Zapotosky
