A career diplomat appointed by the State Department to handle requests for Hillary Clinton’s emails has also donated heavily to her presidential campaign.
Ambassador Janice Jacobs, former assistant secretary for consular affairs at State, gave $2,700 to Clinton’s presidential campaign in June, Federal Election Commission documents show.
Her impending involvement in processing requests for Clinton’s private emails raises questions about whether she can remain impartial when deciding whether to hand over potentially damaging documents to Congress or private groups.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
John Kirby, the State Department’s spokesman, told “Fox and Friends” Friday that Jacobs’ donation was “not relevant.”
“Secretary Kerry has the utmost trust and confidence in her ability to do this job,” Kirby said.
“It’s not prohibited for federal employees to contribute to political causes or campaigns,” he added. “She admitted herself that she made this contribution after she retired from government service.”
Agency officials have echoed the Clinton campaign’s defense on the former secretary’s use of a private email server to shield her government communications, prompting critics to accuse the State Department of protecting Clinton.
The State Department has denied any suggestion that its defense of Clinton is motivated by a desire to help the former secretary.
Both Clinton and State have insisted that the private server arrangement was permitted by regulations at the time.
The campaign and the agency have both argued no wrongdoing occurred because none of the emails were marked classified at the time.
State Department officials announced Tuesday they are working on a document analysis to refute findings by the intelligence community that some of the emails should have been marked “top secret” at the time they were written.
