Sen. Chuck Grassley is continuing his inquiry into State Department personnel practices amid new information and allegations over a leave payment dispute involving a top aide and significant communications between the aide and an outside firm, potentially creating conflict of interest concerns.
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In a letter sent late last week to current Secretary of State John Kerry, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) cited a State Department Inspector General’s investigation of “potential criminal activity” by Abedin during her time at State.
Abedin’s work arrangements with Clinton and the State Department including her leave status, and conversion from a full-time Department of State employee to a Special Government Employee (SGE) and senior advisor to Clinton, are being scrutinized after it was discovered she went on a 10-day trip to Italy and France with husband during her time as a Department employee, even though her attendance sheets indicated that she worked full time with the State Department.
Teneo Strategies was founded by a longtime aide to Bill Clinton, Douglas Band, and boasted the former president as a paid board member when it first launched in 2011.
Grassley alleged that while at the State Department, Abedin simultaneously worked for two other firms. The emails, said Grassley raise “several troubling allegations of Ms. Abedin being solicited for and delivering favors for preferred individuals”. According to Grassley, there is evidence to suggest that Abedin, who was pregnant and gave birth during her tenure there, actually did use at least some of the time for which she later requested to get paid.
Sullivan also ordered Clinton, Mills and Abedin to identify the email server and any devices they may have used to transmit government records, and to confirm whether Abedin and Mills had access to the private network Clinton reportedly set up in her own home.
Rodin was a Teneo Holdings client and the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which, according to Grassley, “donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, a fact which Mr. Band allegedly noted in his email to Ms. Abedin”.
Grassley indicates in the letters, which were provided to The Washington Post, that he is describing information from an inquiry by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General. He also notes that The Associated Press made a similar request in August 2013.
It’s too soon to know whether Abedin actually used her position at State improperly, or whether she received compensation to which she wasn’t entitled.
In his letter to Abedin and her attorneys, Grassley asked for all records related to her leave requests. In the letter to Kerry, Grassley requested Abedin’s leave records as well as any records related to the IG investigation.
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Grassley also alleged that Clinton’s highly controversial private e-mail arrangement interfered with the investigation.
