Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s closest aide is starting to look like a liability on the campaign trail for the Democratic presidential front-runner.
Huma Abedin, who has been at Mrs. Clinton’s side as her personal assistant — or “body woman” — since the 2008 presidential race, has come under scrutiny for pocketing a $33,000 payout from the State Department for unused leave and using her simultaneous employment inside and outside of government to “deliver favors” to Clinton cronies.
Ms. Abedin also popped up in the email scandal that has dogged Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.
A federal judge last week ordered her and another top Clinton aide at theState Department, Cheryl Mills, to attest, under penalty of perjury, that they had turned over all official email in their possession.
The order followed a revelation that Ms. Abedin and Ms. Mills used a private email account for official business, just like their boss, whose secretive email setup with private accounts hosted on a server in Mrs. Clinton’s home in New York has raised questions about her skirting open-records laws and mishandling classified information.
Their close relationship is reflected in Mrs. Clinton’s emails that the State Department has released in accordance with a court order. Of the 3,577 emails released so far, Ms. Abedin was mentioned or involved in 1,538 messages, more than 40 percent of the correspondence.
About 660 of the emails, or 18 percent, were messages directly from Ms. Abedin to Mrs. Clinton.
Most voters probably don’t know Ms. Abenin’s name, but she still can cause headaches for Mrs. Clinton.
“Nobody but political insiders will ever even know Huma Abedin’s name. But she’s another building block in the image of Clinton being conveyed to voters,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
“More and more, the current Clinton campaign is starting to remind me of the Clintons in the 1990s,” he said. “At times, their controversies came in waves and filled news pages. It’s happening all over again for Hillary in this campaign.”
Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin emerges as potential liability in 2016 bid - Washington Times
More and more people including Hillary are now being threatened with possible perjury. We deserve better than this.
Huma Abedin, who has been at Mrs. Clinton’s side as her personal assistant — or “body woman” — since the 2008 presidential race, has come under scrutiny for pocketing a $33,000 payout from the State Department for unused leave and using her simultaneous employment inside and outside of government to “deliver favors” to Clinton cronies.
Ms. Abedin also popped up in the email scandal that has dogged Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.
A federal judge last week ordered her and another top Clinton aide at theState Department, Cheryl Mills, to attest, under penalty of perjury, that they had turned over all official email in their possession.
The order followed a revelation that Ms. Abedin and Ms. Mills used a private email account for official business, just like their boss, whose secretive email setup with private accounts hosted on a server in Mrs. Clinton’s home in New York has raised questions about her skirting open-records laws and mishandling classified information.
Their close relationship is reflected in Mrs. Clinton’s emails that the State Department has released in accordance with a court order. Of the 3,577 emails released so far, Ms. Abedin was mentioned or involved in 1,538 messages, more than 40 percent of the correspondence.
About 660 of the emails, or 18 percent, were messages directly from Ms. Abedin to Mrs. Clinton.
Most voters probably don’t know Ms. Abenin’s name, but she still can cause headaches for Mrs. Clinton.
“Nobody but political insiders will ever even know Huma Abedin’s name. But she’s another building block in the image of Clinton being conveyed to voters,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
“More and more, the current Clinton campaign is starting to remind me of the Clintons in the 1990s,” he said. “At times, their controversies came in waves and filled news pages. It’s happening all over again for Hillary in this campaign.”
Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin emerges as potential liability in 2016 bid - Washington Times
More and more people including Hillary are now being threatened with possible perjury. We deserve better than this.
