Clinton Foundation Exec Sought Special Treatment from State

The top official at the Clinton Foundation sought special diplomatic passports for himself and an associate during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, according to emails obtained by Judicial Watch.

The emails are the latest revelations in a potential “pay-to-play” scandal that has rocked Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president. It is unclear if the request was successful, but the attempt seems to suggest the Clinton Foundation executive expected to receive special treatment from the State Department.

“The idea that the State Department would even consider a diplomatic passport for Clinton Foundation executives is beyond belief.”

The latest batch of emails released by the watchdog group — covering 510 pages — also shows that Bill Clinton sought favors for foundation donors. The latest batch includes 37 email exchanges not previously turned over to the State Department. The new release brings the total number of undisclosed emails uncovered by Judicial Watch to 228.

“The idea that the State Department would even consider a diplomatic passport for Clinton Foundation executives is beyond belief,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a prepared statement. “These emails show various violations of national security laws and ethics rules and further confirm that Hillary and Bill Clinton are personally implicated in the Clinton Foundation pay-to-play scandal.”

A State Department official who requested anonymity said the agency could not comment on a specific situation because of the Privacy Act.

“The staff of former presidents are not included among those eligible to be issued a diplomatic passport,” the official said. “Of course, former presidents from time to time may undertake official work on behalf of the U.S. government. Former presidents are entitled to diplomatic passports, but diplomatic passports are not granted to accompanying staff.”

Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band made the request in an email to top State Department official Huma Abedin on July 27, 2009:

Need get me/ justy and jd dip passports

We had them years ago but they lapsed and we didn’t bother getting them

That night, Abedin responded: “Ok will figure it out.”

Judicial Watch said the unnamed associate in Band’s email apparently refers to Justin Cooper, formerly a key member of Bill Clinton’s personal office. He has been linked to registration documents for the email server that Hillary Clinton had installed in the basement of her home.

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Judicial Watch suggested that granting Band’s request would have been a violation of federal regulations limiting diplomatic passports to members of the Foreign Service, their relatives, and those working on U.S. government contracts.

In another instance of favor-seeking, Clinton scheduler Lona Valmoro emailed Abedin on July 27, 2009, with a request from the former president for special access to the secretary of state for Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris.

Abedin told Valmoro that Bill Clinton wanted to make sure that Hillary Clinton saw Liveris, who records show donated $1 million to $5 million to the foundation.

“Apparently he is head of us china business council. Is he definitely going to be there?” Abedin asked.

Valmoro then emailed Abedin and Clinton aide Paul F. Narain asking if Hillary Clinton could do a “brief pull aside upon arrival” at a State Department event.

Abedin responded: “Yes pull aside on arrival.”

The emails suggest that even conservatives got attention from Clinton’s State Department — as long as they were generous to the foundation.

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In August 2009, Band urged Abedin to follow up on a request by Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy to set up a meeting with Barbara Stephenson, then the ambassador to Panama, on behalf of lobbyist Otto Reich. Reich had been Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to Venezuela and served in the administrations of George H.W. and George W. Bush.

Roberta S. Jacobson, the deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, contacted Ruddy in September 2009 at the behest of Band and Abedin about the Newsmax CEO’s concerns about a lawsuit ensnaring the estate of American tycoon and conservative activist Wilson Lucom.

Newsmax Media donated $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to the organization’s records.

Longtime Clinton family confidante Sidney Blumenthal proposed a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Ireland in an email sent Jan. 5, 2009. Hillary Clinton forwarded the email to Abedin, State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, and Band, writing, “I think this is a good idea and see no conflict.”

Band replied that he and Bill Clinton thought it was a “great idea.”

Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the Clinton Global Initiative is another violation of her pledge to steer clear of the business of the Clinton Foundation and its affiliates. It is a pledge she signed that very day.

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In another email exchange, billionaire businesswoman Lynn Forester de Rothschild in August 2009 set up an interview with Clinton for journalist Les Gelb for Parade magazine.

“He said he would give you a veto over content and looked me in the eye and said, ‘she will like it,'” she wrote in the email to Clinton.

Rothschild is a longtime Clinton Foundation donor and in May hosted a $100,000-per-plate fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

In response to instructions from Abedin regarding the interview, State Department aide Phillip Reines wrote, “Yes, we’re trying to find a date that works for Les, but he is a little, shall we say, picky.”

The revelations about Gelb became public last year, although the former New York Times reporter told The Washington Post that he never agreed to give veto power over the story, which he described as a “boring account of what she did that day” — not a puff piece. The story ran in October 2009 under the headline, “24 Hours with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”