The former Hillary Clinton staffer who set up the Democratic candidate’s now-infamous private email server for her State Department work has been granted immunity by the Justice Department, the Washington Post first reported, and CNN and Fox News have confirmed.

The immunity for Bryan Pagliano comes amid a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information by Clinton and her staff. According to the Post, FBI “agents are likely to want to interview Clinton and her senior aides about the decision to use a private server, how it was set up, and whether any of the participants knew they were sending classified information in emails, current and former officials said.”

Pagliano, who established the server in Hillary’s New York home in 2009, had previously pleaded the Fifth when brought before the House Select Committee on Benghazi to explain the email arrangement.

Judge Andrew Napolitano told Fox News on Thursday the immunity means Pagliano will likely be called to testify against someone much higher on the “totem pole.” He speculates that since only a federal judge can grant immunity and wouldn’t do so unless a sitting jury is ready to hear testimony from that person, an indictment is likely in the works. “We also know they are going to seek someone’s indictment,” he said, “because they would not be immunizing him and thereby inducing him to spill his guts unless they wanted to indict someone.”

Fox News reported Thursday the FBI is  looking into the issue of shared passwords, as they try to determine how sensitive intelligence “jumped the gap” between the classified systems and Clinton’s unsecured server. Sources told Fox News there are several potential scenarios for how classified information got to the Clinton server:

• Reading intelligence reports or briefings, and then summarizing the findings in emails sent on Clinton’s unsecured personal server.
• Accessing the classified intelligence computer network, and then lifting sections by typing them verbatim into a device such as an iPad or BlackBerry.
• Taking pictures of a computer screen to capture the intelligence.
• Using a thumb drive or disk to physically move the intelligence, but this would require access to a data center.

Napolitano figures the FBI wants to know Pagliano’s role in any of this, how he was able to “migrate a State Department secure system onto her private server.” The follow-up question would be: “Mr. Pagliano, did Mrs. Clinton give you her personal Secretary of State password to enable you to do that?” If he answers “Yes,” the judge says, “we will have an indictment for misconduct in office as well as espionage.”

Napolitano’s conclusion? Hillary “should be terrified of the fact that he’s been granted immunity.”

Hillary’s campaign downplayed the news, saying it’s “pleased” Pagliano is cooperating with the Justice Department. “As we have said since last summer, Secretary Clinton has been cooperating with the Justice Department’s security inquiry, including offering in August to meet with them to assist their efforts if needed,” said Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesman.

It should be noted that contrary to Clinton’s assertion, the FBI is not conducting a “security inquiry.” It is conducting a criminal investigation, one that the FBI director James Comey said only Tuesday, he is tracking “very close personally.”

Guy Benson at Townhall also has a final tally of the number of classified emails that Hillary had on her server:  2,079 … with an asterisk. Why an asterisk? “Because that ‘finalized number is based on Hillary’s emails that did not include any of the 32,000 messages she and her lawyers unilaterally deleted with no oversight.”

Al Perrotta is The Stream‘s Deputy Managing Editor and co-author, with counter-intelligence expert Phil Little, of Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself from Terrorism.