New emails show Hillary Clinton welcomed a suggestion from Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidante, to set up a Clinton Global Initiative event involving her husband and elected officials from Northern Ireland while she was secretary of state.
The email, sent from Clinton’s private account in Aug. 2009, was among 46 pages of previously undisclosed emails that shed more light on the cozy relationship between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation during the former secretary of state’s tenure.
Blumenthal suggested that Clinton allow her husband to conduct talks with British and Irish officials on a panel at a Clinton Global Initiative event, “contingent on approval from the State Department.”
But Clinton seemingly brushed off the need for an ethics team to review the proposal. She wrote back, “I think this is a good idea and see no conflict.” She copied Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band on the email.
Other messages show foundation donors and employees taking their requests to Huma Abedin, Clinton’s former deputy chief of staff.
In a July 2009 exchange, Band asked Abedin to secure diplomatic passports for himself and some friends. Abedin said she would “figure it out.”
Diplomatic passports are supposed to be limited to foreign service members, their families or government contractors. Clinton Foundation employees did not fill any of those roles.
Another exchange from that month indicates Bill Clinton informed Abedin that he wanted to “be sure” his wife met with Andrew Liveris, CEO of foundation donor Dow Chemical.
Terrence Duffy, chairman of Chicago-based financial firm CME Group, emailed Hillary Clinton in Aug. 2009 to ask for help securing meetings with Chinese elected officials ahead of his trip there.
Hillary Clinton wrote back wishing Duffy “all the best” and informing him that she would forward his request to Abedin so she could get to work on it.
CME Group has donated to the Clinton Foundation.
The emails are just the latest set of documents to raise questions about the relationship between the foundation and the State Department. Hillary Clinton has avoided the media as allegations of quid pro quo have piled up amid a series of newly-released records.
They were made public Thursday by conservative-leaning Judicial Watch, which obtained them through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
