Hillary Busted (AGAIN) for Pay to Play Scheme at State Department
According to new emails obtained by Judicial Watch, one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closest advisers used her personal email account to discuss classified information and carry out special favors for some of Clinton’s top donors. The emails, 91 of which were not turned over to the State Department as per federal government requirements, were published by the watchdog group as a result of a lawsuit they filed against the agency.
“Pay to play, classified information mishandling, influence peddling, cover ups—these new emails show why the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s conduct must be resumed,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Two incidents stand out among the emails that demonstrate just how willing the Clinton team was to use her position of influence as a payback scheme for her political donors.
In the first, a Puerto Rican Telecom executive named Miguel Lausell asked Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band that one of his buddies be given a U.S. ambassadorship to the Dominican Republic. Lausell, who donated more than a million dollars to the Clinton Library, had his request forwarded immediately to Clinton’s top aides with the instruction: “Make sure there is a response.” It isn’t yet known if the individual in question actually received the ambassadorship, however, because the name itself was redacted in the documents.
In another exchange, Kelly Craighead of the liberal fundraising organization Democracy Alliance asked Abedin if she could touch base with an “extremely loyal supporter” who was waiting to find out about their application for a senior State Department position. A year after that email, Craighead again asked Abedin for some special attention: “It would mean a lot to me if you could help or advise on a personnel situation for a dear friend.”
“We love [the unknown individual],” replied Abedin. “Looking into this ASAP.”
In comments to Fox News, Fitton said it was essential that the Trump administration look into the suspicious activities of Hillary’s State Department and bring prosecutions against the players if the evidence leads them in that direction.
“It’s hard to tell where the Clinton State Department ended and the Clinton Foundation began,” he said. “It was almost like a seamless operation – nowhere on these emails does anyone say, ‘Mrs. Clinton is not involved in the foundation. Stop coming to us for favors.’”
The Clinton folks are trying to excuse these emails as a “distraction” from the controversies of the current administration, but that’s not much of a defense. You don’t get to simply wave away your past misdeeds just because you’re no longer in government. We have laws for a reason, and you don’t get to break them with immunity. Even if your name is Clinton.