Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin emerges as potential liability in 2016 bid

By: American Decency Staff

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 the State 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.

Liability? Huma Abedin, a longtime assistant to Hillary Rodham Clinton, has been … more >

Ms. Abedin, 39, holds the title of vice chairwoman for the 2016 Clinton presidential campaign, but she continues to serve as Mrs. Clinton’s “girl Friday.” She was captured on surveillance video alongside Mrs. Clinton when the former first lady, senator and top diplomat went unnoticed ordering a burrito bowl at a Chipotle restaurant in Ohio on the first road trip for the campaign.

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.

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