In recently leaked emails from Powell, the former secretary of state expressed frustration over Hillary Clinton’s attempt to scapegoat him, Politico reported. “It’s the one prize she wants”. He criticized Clinton aides for tying him into the controversy over the Democratic nominee’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
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Hillary Clinton told FBI investigators that she asked Powell for his advice as he, too, used a private email account.
President Clinton has been dogged by allegations of adultery for years, and his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky culminated in impeachment proceedings.
Powell responded: “I think there is something to it”.
The FBI released information from its investigation of Clinton’s email practices in July and August, and the notes it released showed Clinton indicating her practices came from Powell, CNN added. “She’ll pummel his legacy if she gets a chance and he knows it”.
While partying at a ritzy Hamptons gala in August, Powell denied he was the inspiration for Clinton’s controversial server and told reporters the Clinton camp was trying to blame him for her technology woes.
In an email reported by NBC, Powell wrote that he had told Clinton’s “minions repeatedly that they are making a mistake trying to drag me in, yet they still try”. “I had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hamptons party to get their attention”.
Powell was harsher in an Aug 21 message to a friend and former aide, writing: “Well, their email ploy this week didn’t work and she once again looks shifty if not a liar”.
Clinton’s campaign has compared her situation with Powell’s use of a private email account during his time as secretary of state under President George W. Bush. Decrying “friggin record rules”, Powell wrote that he “saw email more like a telephone than a cable machine”, in one email cited by The Intercept. “As long as the stuff is unclassified. Pat Kennedy, Intel community, (State Department) and yes HRC” – referring to Clinton.
Although he said he respects Clinton as a friend, he also said in an email that “everything HRC touches, she kind of screws up with hubris”. “When Trump couldn’t keep that up he said he also wanted to see if the certificate noted that he was a Muslim”, Mr Powell wrote according to BuzzFeed.
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“I warned her staff three times over the past two years not to try to connect it to me”, Powell said in an email. “I am not sure HRC even knew or understood what was going on in the basement”.
