Emails published by WikiLeaks on Monday show Chelsea Clinton was worried about a consulting firm that was founded by former aides to Bill and Hillary Clinton as she clashed with fellow employees of the Clinton Foundation.
Teneo Strategies, founded by Doug Band and Declan Kelly, has drawn scrutiny for its decision to employ longtime Clinton confidante Huma Abedin during the final months of Hillary Clinton’s State Department tenure. The firm created potential conflicts of interest when Abedin and Band went to State Department officials to seek assistance for Teneo’s clients.
In a Nov. 2011 email to John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s current campaign chair, Band worried that “if this story gets out, we are screwed.” He was referring to Chelsea Clinton’s assertions that Teneo employees had begun to invoke Bill Clinton’s name, without his knowledge or consent, on behalf of corporate clients.
“She is acting like a spoiled brat kid who has nothing else to do but create issues to justify what she’s doing because she, as she has said, hasn’t found her way and has a lack of focus in her life,” Band said of the former first daughter’s criticisms.
Band later described an incident in which the Clinton Foundation’s chief operating officer, Laura Graham, contemplated suicide in Dec. 2011 due to the “stress” of the foundation.
“But I’m sure [C]helsea is more concerned with a mostly false story in the distinguished ny post [sic] about mf global [sic] and [T]eneo not her role in what happened to laura/bruce [sic], what she is doing to the organization or the several of stories that have appeared in the ny post about her father and a multitude of women over the years,” Band wrote.
He was referring to Graham and Bruce Lindsey, chairman of the Clinton Foundation’s board.
MF Global’s collapse after hiring Teneo as a well-paid consultant caused a minor controversy in 2011 for Bill Clinton, who was then on Teneo’s board. He stepped down in 2012.
The leaked emails, which were obtained illegally from the inbox of Podesta suggest the lines between Teneo, the foundation and Bill Clinton’s personal office were blurred. Cheryl Mills, a board member at the foundation and Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff, suggested putting everyone “on a single payroll” and noted that Bill Clinton’s personal financial endeavors, in 2011, were run out of the same office as the Clinton Foundation.
Mills, who then worked at the State Department, devised the structure of Bill Clinton’s office and handed instructions to the former president’s staff. She has since denied playing any behind-the-scenes role at the foundation during her time in the government.
Teneo has weathered criticism for leveraging its connections to the Clintons in ways that created potential conflicts of interest for everyone involved.
