Abedin’s association with Clinton in spotlight.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Hillary Clinton’s first official legal statement about her handling of her email records was released Monday, and named one of her top aids, Huma Abedin, during her response to recent criticism.
In the statement, which was submitted after U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan requested information about how Abedin, a South Asian American, and another top Clinton aide, Cheryl Mills, used Clinton’s personal email system.
“Cheryl Mills did not have an account on Clintonemail.com. Huma Abedin did have such an account, which was used at times for government business,” Clinton declared according to Politico, which initially broke the story.
While Clinton’s declaration hardly shed much light on her alleged housing of sensitive government documents on an unsecure, home server, it did highlight the fact that Abedin and Mills did not respond directly to Sullivan’s request for similar information, reported Politico. “Instead, they submitted letters from their attorneys describing efforts made to search for work-related emails and provide them to State and to a House committee investigating the Benghazi attack.”
The lawsuit that prompted Clinton’s official statement was filed by a conservative group calling itself Judicial Watch. In a court filing that followed Clinton’s declaration, Judicial Watch attorney Michael Bekesha complained that her submission didn’t really advance the case.
“It is of the utmost importance that all federal records in the possession of Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Abedin, and Ms. Mills be returned to Defendant to enable Defendant to conduct a search reasonably calculated to uncover all responsive records.”
Bekesha also noted that Clinton’s statement did not explain what had become of Abedin’s Clintonemail.com messages.
Abedin’s attorneys, Karen Dunn and Miguel Rodriguez, had previously claimed that the State Department sent its first request for her records to “an incorrect address” and also sent follow-up emails to dated email addresses.
“Ms. Abedin’s initial ability to respond was impeded by the Department’s failure to ensure that the request timely reached Ms. Abedin,” Dunn and Rodriguez wrote. Their letter did not address Sullivan’s question about use of “Mrs. Clinton’s email server to conduct official government business.”
Last month, it was revealed that Abedin is the top paid employee on Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
1 Comment
Hmm, curiouser and curiouser….