A conservative watchdog have thrown light on how the top officials from the Clinton Foundation has sought access to the State Department when Hillary Clinton was serving as the Secretary of State in the first term of the Obama Administration. A new set of 44 email exchanges spread over 296 pages, throws light on how officials of the Clinton Foundation not only sought to get job opportunities in the State Department, but also got the help in getting meetings with foreign government, alleged Judicial Watch which obtained these emails through Freedom of Information Act.
The new documents said that in April 2009 the controversial Clinton Foundation official Doug Band has pushed for a job for an associate, the Judicial Watch said.
In the email 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). Band is reassured by Abedin that, “Personnel has been sending him options.” Band was co-founder of Teneo Strategy with Bill Clinton and a top official.
In a 2009 email Band, directs Abedin and Mills to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor Gilbert Chagoury in touch with the State Department’s “substance person” on Lebanon. The Band notes that Chagoury is “key guy there [Lebanon] and to us,” and insists that Abedin to call ambassador Jeffrey Feltman to connect him to Chagoury.
Chagoury is a close friend of former US President Bill Clinton and a top donor to the Clinton Foundation, Judicial Watch.
According to a 2010 investigation by PBS Frontline, Chagoury was convicted in 2000 in Switzerland for laundering money from Nigeria, but agreed to a plea deal and repaid USD 66 million to the Nigerian government, Judicial Watch alleged.
“Clinton’s top aides’ favors for and interactions with the Clinton Foundation seem in violation of the ethics agreements that Hillary Clinton agreed to in order to be appointed and confirmed as Secretary of State,” it said.
By Premji
