Newly released emails reveal that Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, helped Clinton Foundation donors get access to Clinton while Clinton was secretary of State.
Judicial Watch, the transparency group currently suing the State Department over the release of emails during Clinton’s tenure, released 725 pages of documents on Monday — including 20 previously undisclosed emails Clinton sent from her private, unsanctioned, and unsecured server, which was housed in a bathroom.
In an exchange between Abedin and Doug Band, a former advisor to the Clinton Foundation who co-founded Teneo Holdings — a secretive company that has enriched Clinton aides — Band pushed Clinton to meet with the Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain.
Hillary Clinton had initially rejected his request, but after he asked again through the Clinton Foundation, the crown prince, who has donated more than $32 million to the Clinton Global Initiative, was able to meet with Hillary Clinton.
In an email with the subject line “Cp of Bahrain in tomorrow to Friday,” Bannon wrote the crown prince was “asking to see her,” and that he was a “good friend of ours[.]”
Abedin responded explaining the prince had already submitted a request via the State Department, which she referred to as “normal channels,” but that he would have to go through the Clinton Foundation, which she referred to as “official channels,” instead.
“He asked to see hrc thurs and fri thru normal channels,” she wrote. “I asked and she said she doesn’t want to commit to anything for thurs or fri until she knows how she will feel. Also she says that she may want to go to ny and doesn’t want to be committed to stuff in ny.”
Two days later, Abedin sent another message to Band informing him that the crown prince would get a sit-down with Hillary Clinton.
“Offering Bahrain cp 10 tomorrow for meeting woith [sic] hrc,” she wrote. “If u see him, let him know[.] We have reached out thru official channels.”
This kind of apparent pay-for-play behavior isn’t an isolated incident. Other email exchanges reveal that Band asked Abedin to find a job for an unnamed individual. He also pressured her into setting up a meeting between a U.S. ambassador to Libya and a Clinton Foundation donor.
