Top Clinton Aide Has Some Explaining to Do

Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has some serious explaining to do—a lot of it.

Sunday morning, she awoke to see new reports that she edited a radical Islamic journal for more than a decade. The New York Post‘s Paul Sperry wrote:

One of Clinton’s biggest accomplishments listed on her campaign website is her support for the UN women’s conference in Bejing in 1995, when she famously declared, “Women’s rights are human rights.” Her speech has emerged as a focal point of her campaign, featured prominently in last month’s Morgan Freeman-narrated convention video introducing her as the Democratic nominee.

However, soon after that “historic and transformational” 1995 event, as Clinton recently described it, her top aide Huma Abedin published articles in a Saudi journal taking Clinton’s feminist platform apart, piece by piece. At the time, Abedin was assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs working under her mother, who remains editor-in-chief. She was also working in the White House as an intern for then-first lady Clinton.

Headlined “Women’s Rights Are Islamic Rights,” a 1996 article argues that single moms, working moms and gay couples with children should not be recognized as families. It also states that more revealing dress ushered in by women’s liberation “directly translates into unwanted results of sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility and indirectly promote violence against women.” In other words, sexually liberated women are just asking to be raped.

Abedin quickly issued a statement saying she was not directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the magazine, despite being listed as the assistant editor on its masthead. Her mother, Saleha Mahmood Abedin, is the journal’s editor-in-chief.

The magazine also published an article, written by Saleha Abedin, suggesting the U.S. got what it deserved in the 9/11 Islamist attacks.

If that weren’t enough, however, Monday, the Clinton aide once again became embroiled in her boss’ email controversy. Judicial Watch released a batch of emails that show Abedin “provided influential Clinton Foundation donors special, expedited access to the secretary of state.”

In many instances, according to the emails, the preferential treatment provided to donors was at the specific request of Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band. They show Abedin “served as a conduit between Clinton Foundation donors and Hillary Clinton” while the latter served as secretary of state.

In more than a dozen email exchanges, Abedin provided expedited, direct access to Clinton for donors who had contributed from $25,000 to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. In many instances, Clinton Foundation top executive Doug Band, who worked with the Foundation throughout Hillary Clinton’s tenure at State, coordinated closely with Abedin.

In Abedin’s June deposition to Judicial Watch, she conceded that part of her job at the State Department was taking care of “Clinton family matters.”

In one exchange, Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain requested a meeting with Secretary of State Clinton and was forced to go through the Clinton Foundation for an appointment. For her part, it appears Abedin advised Band that when she went through “normal channels” at State, Clinton declined to meet.

With 48 hours of Band’s intervention, a meeting was set up. From 2005 to 2010, Salman contributed $32 million to the Clinton Global Initiative—part of the Clinton Foundation—to establish the Crown Prince’s International Scholarship Program. The Kingdom of Bahrain has reportedly donated in the $50,000 to $100,000 range to the Clinton Foundation while Bahrain Petroleum donated an additional $25,000 to $50,000.

Other Abedin-related email exchanges exposed the following possible pay-for-play scenarios:

• May 4, 2009—Slimfast tycoon S. Daniel Abraham was granted almost immediate access to then-Secretary of State Clinton, with Abedin serving as the facilitator. According to the Clinton Foundation website, Abraham, like the Wasserman Foundation, has given between $5 million and $10 million to the Clinton Foundation.
• May 5, 2009—Band urged Abedin to get the Clinton State Department to intervene in order to obtain a visa for members of the Wolverhampton (UK) Football Club, one of whose members was apparently having difficulty because of a “criminal charge.” Band was acting at the behest of Casey Wasserman, a millionaire Hollywood sports entertainment executive and President of the Wasserman Foundation. Wasserman has donated between $5 million and $10 million to the Clinton Foundation through the Wasserman Foundation.
• May 16, 2009—mobile communications executive and political activist Jill Iscol wrote to Clinton, “Please advise to whom I should forward Jacqueline Novogratz’s request [for a meeting with the secretary of state]. I know you know her, but honestly, she is so far ahead of the curve and brilliant I believe she could be enormously helpful to your work.” Clinton subsequently sent an email to Abedin saying, “Pls print.” Jill and husband Ken Iscol donated between $500,000 and $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton subsequently appointed Novogratz to the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
• May 27, 2009—even U2’s Bono got in on the act. On his behalf, former Bill Clinton aide Ben Schwerin, who helped set up the Clinton Foundation, urged Abedin to help the aging rock star broadcast from the International Space Station. Bono has been a donor to the Clinton Global Initiative, and in 2011, he gathered top entertainers for “A Decade of Difference: A Concert Celebrating 10 Years of the William J. Clinton Foundation.”
• June 16, 2009—Ben Ringel wrote to Abedin, “I’m on shuttle w Avigdor Liberman. I called u back yesterday. I want to stop by to see hrc tonite for 10 mins.” Ringel donated between $10,000 and $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
• June 26, 2009—Clinton confidant Kevin O’Keefe wrote to Clinton saying that “Kevin Conlon is trying to set up a meeting with you and a major client.” Clinton wrote to Abedin, “Can you help deliver these for Kevin?” Abedin responded, “I’ll look into it asap” Kevin O’Keefe donated between $10,000 and $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Kevin Conlon is a Clinton presidential campaign “Hillblazer” who has raised more than $100,000 for the candidate.
• Also during June, 2009—prominent St. Louis political power broker Joyce Aboussie exchanged a series of insistent emails with Abedin concerning Aboussie’s efforts to set up a meeting between Clinton and Peabody Energy VP Cartan Sumner. Aboussie wrote, “Huma, I need your help now to intervene please. We need this meeting with Secretary Clinton, who has been there now for nearly six months. This is, by the way, my first request. I really would appreciate your help on this. It should go without saying that the Peabody folks came to Dick [Gephardt] and I because of our relationship with the Clinton’s.” After further notes from Aboussie, Abedin responded, “We are working on it and I hope we can make something work… we have to work through the beauracracy [sic] here.” Aboussie donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation.

“These new emails confirm that Hillary Clinton abused her office by selling favors to Clinton Foundation donors,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “There needs to be a serious, independent investigation to determine whether Clinton and others broke the law.”