Newly disclosed emails from Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s unsecure account have brought to light additional examples of mishandling of classified information and “pay to play” at the Clinton State Department.
The State Department this week turned over 1,600 emails from Abedin’s account to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch in response to the group’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
BREAKING: JW uncovered even more #Clinton emails showing pay-for-play & mishandling classified info.🔎 #WhatHappenedhttps://t.co/YBgJMr0zlR
— Judicial Watch 🔎 (@JudicialWatch) September 14, 2017
Judicial Watch says the documents reveal “numerous additional examples of classified information being transmitted through the unsecure, non-state.gov account of Huma Abedin, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, as well as many instances of Hillary Clinton donors receiving special favors from the State Department.”
“The emails show ‘what happened’ was that Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin obviously violated laws about the handling of classified information and turned the State Department into a pay for play tool for the corrupt Clinton Foundation,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “The clear and mounting evidence of pay for play and mishandling of classified information warrant a serious criminal investigation by an independent Trump Justice Department.”
According to Fitton, there are emails “we haven’t seen before” among this latest batch, even though Clinton assured Congress that she had turned over all of her emails.
Via Fox News:
In May 2010, Clinton Foundation donor and developer Eddie Trump wrote to Doug Band, a Clinton Foundation official and former top aide to President Bill Clinton, forwarding a request for help getting the Russian American Foundation involved in a State Department program. Band forwarded the request to Abedin, asking if they can “get this done/mtg set.” Judicial Watch previously reported that the State Department paid more than $260,000 to the Russian American Foundation for “public diplomacy.”
In July 2009, Zachary Schwartz, an associate for donor Steve Bing, contacted Band requesting help on visas for Cuba for a film production crew from Bing’s Shangri La Entertainment. Band forwarded the request to Abedin asking her to call Schwartz “asap.” Abedin said she would. Bing reportedly donated between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation.
Another instance was in September 2009, when chairman of futures brokerage firm CME Group and Clinton Foundation donor Terrence Duffy asked Clinton to help arrange “government appointments” in Singapore and Hong Kong. Clinton forwarded the request to Abedin, who said she would “follow up” with his secretary.
“Would like to get some more information and details so we can try to help,” Abedin wrote to Duffy’s secretary.
Duffy’s secretary replied, “We would also like some help in arranging meetings with some key govt officials in both locations, such as the Prime Minister of Singapore, and would appreciate any help you may be able to provide.”
Abedin responded on Sept. 29, 2009 that they were “happy to assist with any and all meetings” and that she had “discussed you and your trip with our assistant secretary of state for east Asia and pacific affairs.”
Duffy reportedly gave $4,600 to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and his company reportedly paid Clinton $225,000 for a speaking fee.
Other documents show Clinton received “proposed questions” in advance of a “Global Press Conference” in 2009 from seven foreign reporters, among other communications among Clinton, Abedin and other State Department aides.
On Fox News Friday morning, Tom Fitton talked about what he called Clinton’s “outrageous abuses,” including the mishandling of classified information regarding the Middle East, military contributions from U.S. allies in Afghanistan, and sensitive CIA operations.
The pay to play scandal involves “email after email of Doug Band working with Huma Abedin to provide favors to Clinton Foundation donors,” Fitton said.
The donors went through Band “to get access and benefits from the State Department,” he explained.
Judicial Watch also uncovered an email from 2010 in which a Clinton speechwriter asked Abedin if her mother would be willing to “give him advice on talking points he was preparing for Clinton for her town hall meeting at Dar Al Hekma, a women’s university in Saudi Arabia.”
Abedin’s mother is a controversial Islamist activist who has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Talk to my mom for sure. She will have good points for you,” Abedin replied.
Saleha Abedin ended up advising Clinton’s speechwriter to make major edits, including removing all pro-democracy references from the speech: “Do not use political terms such as ‘democracy/elections/freedom.’ Do not use the term ‘empowerment of women’ instead say ‘enabling women’ Do not even mention driving for women! Don’t sound sympathetic to ‘women’s plight’ or be ‘patronizing’ as other visitors have done and made the students extremely annoyed. They rightly consider these as in-house issues.”
Judicial Watch looked and could not find any evidence that Clinton referenced any of those topics in her speech.
“When Huma Abedin was criticized because of her mother’s controversial activities on behalf of radical Islam everyone said ‘well, how dare you criticize her,'” Fitton pointed out.
Indeed, in 2012, Senator John McCain took to the Senate floor to roundly condemn a group of House Republicans who had voiced concerns about Abedin’s connections to Muslim extremists, including her mother. State Department spokesman Philippe Reines at the time called the accusations “nothing but vicious and disgusting lies.”
“Now it looks like she had a hand in crafting Mrs. Clinton’s message during a town hall to Saudi Arabia,” Fitton said.
“I don’t understand why the Justice Department hasn’t gotten its act together and reinitiated an investigation into what went on here, because we all know Comey’s investigation was a sham,” he declared. “They need to restart it up.”
.@TomFitton on @HillaryClinton: "The pay-to-play scandal… It's there in black and white." pic.twitter.com/MGUZ4AIr9X
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 15, 2017
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