“In your recent private meeting with former President Bill Clinton, did you discuss anything regarding the Clinton Foundation?”.
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Judicial Watch released almost 300 pages of new emails Tuesday that show how the Democratic presidential nominee sold influence through the Clinton Foundation while Secretary of State.
The State Department’s Elizabeth Trudeau had a hard time dodging a swarm of uncomfortable questions, forcing her to comment on the ethical side of close ties of Department and the Clinton Foundation back when it was headed by the current Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. To which Abedin replied: “We have all had him on our radar” and “Personnel has been sending him options”.
The emails were obtained by the group through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the State Department in 2015. The group did not respond to a CNN request for comment.
Reporters appeared to be at loss over the secrecy surrounding the mysterious person, especially with Clinton campaign now saying that he was not “employed by the Foundation”.
The FBI reportedly approached the Justice Department earlier this year, requesting an investigation into the Clinton Foundation, but the public integrity probe was declined, according to a new report.
In emails from April 2009, Doug Band, who worked at the foundation and served as an aide to former President Bill Clinton, contacted Abedin and Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, for “a favor” on behalf of a foundation associate.
“Very imp”, Mr Band wrote.
As for Band’s request to introduce a wealthy donor to the US ambassador to Lebanon, Trudeau said this type of interaction would not be uncommon.
Abedin emailed back that the person Chagoury should speak with was Jeffrey Feltman, who had recently left his post as the USA ambassador to Lebanon. “I’ll talk to Jeff”, she wrote. He has never met or had any contact with Ambassador Feltman. “If the State Department continues to withhold these emails, Hillary Clinton should demand they be released, or release them herself”.
Judicial Watch said it has now found 171 messages that weren’t included in the 30,000 e-mails Clinton turned over to the State Department.
“Chougary, who is of Lebanese descent, was simply seeking to share his insights on the upcoming Lebanese election with the right person at the Department of State for whom this information might be helpful”, said a campaign aide.
Observers and legal experts say such emails could provide an insight into how the US government works and how redlines become blurry when influential individuals, including foreign citizens, request favors from government officials. More than 10 million dollars.
According to different reports, the FBI had already considered several months ago to open a corruption investigation involving the Clinton Foundation.
Donald Trump pounced Wednesday on new revelations about emails sent and received by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staff, accusing Clinton of engaging in “pay for play” tactics.
The initial news of the Justice Department going against the FBI’s wishes was buried in a CNN story yesterday that detailed the latest release of Clinton’s emails to the public at the hands of the conservative watchdog, Judicial Watch. And Hillary’s aide Huma Abedin helped him out.
The Clinton Foundation also says Mills was not a paid employee.
Mills’s attorney says her work was strictly voluntary and that no government funds were used to finance the trip.
In the previous e-mails that were released, the e-mails proved Clinton was not truthful in her testimony she gave authorities.
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Because the DOJ was unable to find sufficient evidence, it pushed back against opening a case when meeting with the Federal Bureau of Investigation earlier in the year.
