Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has told friends that she has no idea how her emails ended up stored on her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s computer. She says she rarely used the machine and had no reason to archive emails on the device.
The Washington Post reported that Abedin was not a regular user of the laptop in question. The paper also reported that Abedin’s lawyers did not bother to search the device for work-related emails after she agreed to turn over such messages to the State Department.
On Saturday, a senior law enforcement official told Fox News that the laptop contained “five digits,” or at least 10,000, emails of interest to investigators.
The source also told Fox News that law enforcement officials think it’s highly unlikely that all of the newfound emails are duplicates, as the Clinton campaign has suggested. The Post reported, citing former FBI officials, that investigators would likely use a computer program to weed out duplicate emails before examining the remaining messages for possible criminality.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that several Clinton allies have suggested the Democratic nominee distance herself from Abedin, who has had a professional relationship with Clinton for two decades. In that capacity, Clinton’s team defended an unusual employment arrangement in which Abedin was paid by the Clinton Foundation, a consulting firm called Teneo and the State Department all at once.
Clinton also stood by Abedin when Weiner’s first online sex scandal cost him his seat in Congress, and when his second imploded his bid for New York mayor. When Abedin announced her separation from Weiner earlier this year, it was Clinton’s campaign that sent her statement to reporters.
Clinton may find it difficult to stand by her woman if Abedin is indicted for perjury:
On June 28, 2016, Abedin said under oath in a sworn deposition that she looked for all devices that she thought contained government work on them so the records could be given to the State Department. (These records were subsequently reviewed by the FBI.)
“How did you go about searching for what records you may have in your possession to be returned to the State Department?” Attorney Ramona Cotca for Judicial Watch asked her.
“I looked for all the devices that may have any of my State Department work on it and returned — returned — gave them to my attorneys for them to review for all relevant documents. And gave them devices and paper,” Abedin answered.
Cotca then asked Abedin specifically what devices she gave her attorneys.
“If memory serves me correctly, it was two laptops, a BlackBerry, and some files that I found in my apartment,” Abedin said, adding the BlackBerry was associated with her Clintonemail.com account.
Abedin maintained that she was “not involved in the process” of what records on her devices would be given to the State Department.
“I provided them [her attorneys] with the devices and the materials and asked them to find whatever they thought was relevant and appropriate, whatever was their determination as to what was a federal record, and they did. They turned the materials in, and I know they did so….”
Abedin was asked whether she supplied her login, password and other credentials to her “Clintonmail.com” account so that her attorneys could eyeball “all of the emails that were on that account” Abedin said she had.
Pressed how she was sure, Abedin said, “I cannot answer that question.”
It’s possible she may have unknowingly created an archive of her emails on her husband’s computer by using her home printer to print out some emails, but it still strains credulity.
But what else could she say? If she admits she knew about the emails, it’s a clear case of perjury given her statement to the FBI. Better to play tech dummy and claim she has no idea how 10,000+ emails ended up on the computer of a pervert.
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