How Huma Abedin could become a Clinton liability

Huma Abedin, a longtime Clinton confidante who presently serves as vice-chair of her campaign, has found herself at the center of controversy over allegations that foundation donors enjoyed special access to the State Department given her role as the most frequent liaison between the two Clinton networks.

As the only other aide known to have hosted an account on the “clintonemail.com” server, Abedin’s work-related communications have become the focus of many of the same open records lawsuits that forced disclosures from Clinton’s official emails last year.

In fact, the most recent revelations about contact between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation have emerged from Abedin’s inbox, not Clinton’s.

And Abedin’s personal life thrust her into headlines once again Monday on the heels of reports that she had coordinated invitations to State Department events for prominent foundation donors.

Abedin announced on Monday her intention to separate from her husband, Anthony Weiner, amid new reports that the disgraced former congressman had shared lewd photographs of himself with women on social media.

Sexting scandals forced Weiner from office in 2011 and felled him again in 2013 after he launched a bid for mayor of New York City.

Coming days after a dust-up over the past domestic abuse charges of Donald Trump’s campaign chair, Stephen Bannon, the exposure of Weiner’s latest digital dalliance raised questions about whether Abedin’s estranged husband was fair game for Clinton’s political rivals.

Trump quickly capitalized on the news, circulating a statement Monday that suggested Clinton had been “careless and negligent” by permitting Weiner to have “close proximity to highly classified information” through his marriage to Abedin.

However, there is no indication Abedin exposed any classified information to her husband while serving as Clinton’s deputy chief of staff from 2009 to 2012, at which point she took on the role of a “special government employee” in order to work simultaneously for the State Department and the Clinton Foundation.

Her overlapping employment at the agency, foundation and a controversial consulting firm called Teneo Strategies has raised questions from Republican lawmakers in the past, most notably from Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, first began asking the State Department in 2013 to explain how Abedin was permitted to skirt personnel laws that forbid such ethically fraught employment arrangements.

Recent emails that show Abedin connecting donors with the State Department officials they sought — including with Clinton herself — underscore the concerns that emerged when Grassley and others first began drilling down on Abedin’s conflicting jobs.

David Bossie, president of Citizens United, said the latest rash of emails have raised concerns about the duties Abedin performed during Clinton’s tenure.

“What was Huma Abedin’s priority at the State Department – American diplomacy or donor maintenance?” Bossie told the Washington Examiner.

Voters may be asking themselves the same question, according a Monmouth University poll made public Monday. Fifty-four percent of voters said they believe Clinton Foundation contributors enjoyed special treatment at the State Department under Clinton’s leadership, compared to just 26 percent who did not perceive any impropriety.

Bossie, whose group has pried many of the most noteworthy exchanges involving Abedin from the State Department’s records office, called on Clinton to address the latest allegations of pay-for-play.

“Bill and Hillary Clinton need to hold a joint press conference immediately to answer questions about the State Department’s troubling relationship with the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as Secretary of State,” he said.

Hillary Clinton has not held a press conference in 269 days.