A new set of 44 e-mails released by a conservative watchdog has thrown light on how top officials from the Clinton Foundation sought access to the State Department when Hillary Clinton served as the Secretary of State in the first term of the Obama Administration.
According to the e-mail exchanges spread over 296 pages, officials of the Clinton Foundation not only sought job opportunities in the State Department, but also help in getting meetings with foreign government, alleged Judicial Watch which obtained these e-mails through Freedom of Information Act.
The new documents reveal that in April 2009, controversial Clinton Foundation official Doug Band pushed for a job for an associate, the Judicial Watch said.
In the e-mail, Mr. Band tells Hillary Clinton’s former aides at the State Department Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin that it is “important to take care of [Redacted].
Mr. Band is reassured by Ms. Abedin that “personnel have been sending him options.”
Mr. Band was co-founder of Teneo Strategy with Bill Clinton and a top official of the Clinton Foundation, including its Clinton Global Initiative, it said.
Included in the new document production is a 2009 e-mail in which Mr. Band, directs Ms. Abedin and Ms. Mills to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor Gilbert Chagoury in touch with the State Department’s “substance person” on Lebanon.
Mr. Band notes that Mr. Chagoury is “key guy there [Lebanon] and to us,” and insists that Ms. Abedin call ambassador Jeffrey Feltman to connect him to Mr. Chagoury.
Mr. Chagoury is a close friend of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and a top donor to the Clinton Foundation, Judicial Watch said. He has appeared near the top of the Foundation’s donor list as a $1 million to $5 million contributor, according to foundation documents. He also pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative.
