Though reports alleging that James Comey overstated the volume of emails Huma Abedin forwarded to her husband, Anthony Weiner, contributed to his firing on Tuesday, they should not overshadow concerns regarding Abedin’s conduct. I compared the information sources shared with ProPublica and The Washington Post to Comey’s testimony last week here.
But one point that is not called into question by either report — nor is it changed by Comey’s firing — is that Abedin did, in fact, give her husband access to emails later deemed to contain classified information.
So long as it is not disputed, that should not be overlooked.
That Abedin gave her husband access to even one email containing classified information, let alone 12, as Comey suggests, is a stain on her career. Whether the emails with classified information ended up on Weiner’s laptop via automatic Blackberry backups or forwarded emails Abedin asked him to print, someone with his record should not have had access to that intelligence.
If your husband had resigned from Congress in disgrace for lying to his constituents about a bizarre sexting scandal and then repeated that behavior after claiming to be a changed man, it is not good judgment to give him access to classified information — even if it’s just to print, even if you personally trust him, and even if it’s not marked “classified” at the time it’s forwarded.
I do not know at what points in Weiner’s saga of depravity Abedin facilitated his access to this information, but they were located on his laptop last October, which means, at the very least, that access remained after Abedin was fully aware of her husband’s wrongdoings.
Far from good judgment, that is reckless and disrespectful to the American people.
Spending more than two decades ensconced in Clinton World appears to have compromised Abedin’s sense of ethical conduct.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
