New e-mails show State Department-Clinton Foundation link: watchdog
A new set of 44 e-mails released by a conservative watchdog has thrown light on how top officials from the Clinton Foundation sought access to the State Department when Hillary Clinton served as the Secretary of State in the first term of the Obama Administration.According to the e-mail exchanges spread over 296 pages, officials of the Clinton Foundation not only sought job opportunities in the State Department, but also help in getting meetings with foreign government, alleged Judicial Watch which obtained these e-mails through Freedom of Information Act.
And he pushed a job for an associate
The new documents reveal that in April 2009, controversial Clinton Foundation official Doug Band pushed for a job for an associate, the Judicial Watch said.
In the e-mail, Mr. Band tells Hillary Clinton’s former aides at the State Department Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin that it is “important to take care of [Redacted].
Mr. Band is reassured by Ms. Abedin that “personnel have been sending him options.”
Mr. Band was co-founder of Teneo Strategy with Bill Clinton and a top official of the Clinton Foundation, including its Clinton Global Initiative, it said.
2009 e-mail
Included in the new document production is a 2009 e-mail in which Mr. Band, directs Ms. Abedin and Ms. Mills to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor Gilbert Chagoury in touch with the State Department’s “substance person” on Lebanon.
Mr. Band notes that Mr. Chagoury is “key guy there [Lebanon] and to us,” and insists that Ms. Abedin call ambassador Jeffrey Feltman to connect him to Mr. Chagoury.
Mr. Chagoury is a close friend of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and a top donor to the Clinton Foundation, Judicial Watch said. He has appeared near the top of the Foundation’s donor list as a $1 million to $5 million contributor, according to foundation documents. He also pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative.
Convicted for money-laundering
According to a 2010 investigation by PBS Frontline, Mr. Chagoury was convicted in 2000 in Switzerland for laundering money from Nigeria, but agreed to a plea deal and repaid $66 million to the Nigerian government, Judicial Watch alleged.
“Clinton’s top aides’ favour for and interactions with the Clinton Foundation seems in violation of the ethics agreements that Hillary Clinton agreed to in order to be appointed and confirmed as Secretary of State,” it said.
As preparation for Ms. Clinton’s upcoming visit to Asia, Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, on February 11, 2009, sends her a copy of his upcoming testimony before the Congress in which he would condemn any U.S. efforts to criticise Chinese monetary policy or enact trade barriers.
Several days later, Ms. Hillary asked Ms. Abedin about Mr. Roach possibly “connecting” with her while she was in Beijing: “I forwarded you my e-mail to him about connecting in Beijing. Can he come to the embassy or other event?” Morgan Stanley is a long-time financial supporter of the Clintons, the Judicial Watch said.
‘Sensitive papers in unlocked hotel room’
“The e-mails also reveal that Abedin left then-Secretary Clinton’s daily schedule, a presumably sensitive document, on a bed in an unlocked hotel room,” the Judicial Watch alleged.
An e-mail on April 18, 2009, during a conference in Trinidad and Tobago, from aide Melissa J. Lan to Ms. Abedin asks for the Secretary’’s “day book binders.”
Ms. Abedin replies: “Yes. It’s on the bed in my room. U can take it. My door is open. I’m in the lobby. Thx.”
Moreover, the e-mails show the annoyance of another Clinton aide that the schedule was sent to an authorised State Department e-mail address and not to an unsecured non-state government account, Judicial Watch alleged.
“The e-mails reveal that Clinton campaign adviser and pollster Mark Penn advised her on NATO and piracy.
Another major Clinton fundraiser, Lana Moresky, also pushed Ms. Clinton to hire someone for a position at State.
Ms. Clinton directed Ms. Abedin to follow up and “help” the applicant and told Ms. Abedin to “let me know about the job issue,” it said.
Shot-in-the-arm for pro-Trump lobby
“This is yet more evidence that Hillary Clinton lacks the judgement, character, stability and temperament to be within 1,000 miles of public power. She views public office as nothing more than a means to personal enrichment — and every dollar she takes comes at the expense of the public welfare,” said Stephen Miller, national policy director of the Trump Campaign.
“This latest finding is an unseemly, disturbing window into a corrupt office, and yet more evidence that Hillary Clinton has been lying from the beginning — and by any reasonable definition attempted to obstruct the investigation of the FBI,” he said.
Donors to the Clinton Foundation had special access to Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State, fresh documents brought Read more
