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Report: Clinton Email Scandal Extends to Aide Huma Abedin
Tuesday, May 5, 2015 08:06 PM
By: Jason Devaney
The email scandal surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expanding to others in her inner circle, with her personal assistant Huma Abedin now under fire.
Abedin reportedly used the same private email server set up in the Clintons' New York home to conduct her State Department business, and now conservative law firm Judicial Watch is trying to get Abedin's messages, reports the Washington Times.
Abedin was Clinton's chief of staff during the 2008 presidential campaign, and then served as her deputy chief of staff during her time running the State Department (2009-2013).
Abedin is again working for Clinton, this time as her traveling chief of staff as she campaigns for president.
Judicial Watch has filed several requests for information to be released after the Clinton email scandal was made public earlier this year.
"We're churning through these," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said, according to the Times. "The scandal at the State Department is more than about Hillary Clinton. There are others involved."
When Clinton was part of the Obama cabinet, federal law encouraged government employees to use an official government email account. If someone wanted to use a personal account for work, they were required to forward their messages to their official government address.
Clinton opted to use her private email address and reportedly did not provide any of the messages to the government until recently, when she handed over 30,000 messages.
Between October and December last year, Clinton allegedly deleted more than 30,000 emails she deemed personal and unrelated to her job.
Republicans have criticized Clinton for opting to be so secret in her email practices. Rep. Trey Gowdy, who heads the House select committee tasked with investigating what happened during the 2012 Benghazi attacks, has repeatedly asked Clinton to testify in front of the panel about what she knows. She agreed to appear sometime later this month.
The panel will reportedly ask Clinton about the Benghazi and email scandals.
As for Abedin, she's involved in another Clinton-related scandal stemming from her time at the State Department. While she worked for Clinton there, Abedin also held a full-time job in the private sector. She was given "Special Government Employee" status while at State.
"This program is meant to be used in a limited way to give the government special expertise it can't get otherwise," Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said. "An inspector general review is necessary.
"Available information suggests that in at least one case, the State Department gave the special status for employee convenience, not public benefit."
