Hillary Clinton appears to have visited Sidney Blumenthal in the weeks after the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi claimed the lives of four Americans.
Blumenthal told the secretary of state it was “great to see you” on October 6, 2012, and encouraged her to “drop in again,” according to emails released by the State Department Friday.
The next day, Blumenthal invited Clinton to his home after the election, which she accepted.
“Post-election, we’d like to have you over for dinner,” he wrote. “Bill can come too, if he’s in town. Whatever works.”
“Will do,” she replied.
The exchange was yet another illustration of the cozy relationship between the former Clinton aide and secretary of state that has sparked controversy in recent days.
Blumenthal sent a series of informal intelligence memos to Clinton regarding the security situation in Libya both before and after the 2012 terror attack.
Clinton appeared to take those reports seriously, often forwarding them along to top diplomatic officials and even suggesting that one memo be passed along to “the Israelis.”
The Obama administration reportedly blunted Clinton’s attempts to hire Blumenthal in 2009 when she was building her State Department team.
Clinton has defended Blumenthal as an “old friend” who merely provided her with another perspective while in office.
But because many of his memos were marked “confidential” and packaged for agency staff in both Libya and Washington as updates from an intelligence source close to the secretary, many have questioned whether Blumenthal’s reports seriously influenced Clinton’s decisions.
It is unclear from the documents whether Blumenthal marked his dossiers “confidential” himself or if they were given that designation officially. If the government took that step, that would make them classified.
Clinton’s top staff occasionally disputed Blumenthal’s memos, calling one “a bit odd” and another “a thin conspiracy theory.”
