(Via The Weekly Standard) Senator Chuck Grassley has sent two letters to the State Department to ask about Huma Abedin’s special government status when she was a government employee–and for information on Abedin’s email use while working for the government. Abedin is a close aide to Hillary Clinton, and worked for the consulting firm Teneo (under a special government employee status) while working for Clinton.
“I am writing to follow up on inquiries I have been making since June 13, 2013 and August 15, 2013 regarding the State Department’s use of Special Government Employee (SGE) designations, and in particular, what steps the Department took to ensure that Ms. Huma Abedin’s outside employment with a political intelligence and corporate advisory firm did not conflict with her simultaneous employment at the State Department.
I thank the Department for its responses to my inquiries made June 13, 2013 and August 15, 2013. However, to date, the Department’s answers have been largely unresponsive,” writes Grassley to Secretary of State John Kerry.
[…] As explained in my letter to Ms. Abedin dated June 13, 2013, the State Department’s current use of the SGE designation blurs the line between public and private sector employees. It is especially troubling when employees receive full-time salaries for what appears to be part-time work.
The taxpayer deserves to know why Ms. Abedin was permitted to perform her job in New York when the position had normally been performed in Washington, D.C. and why she was permitted to become an SGE from inside government when normally an SGE would come from outside government. Likewise, the taxpayer has a right to know how many other State Department SGEs were given similarly favorable treatment.
Recent revelations about the record keeping practices at the State Department under Secretary Clinton raise questions as to whether any email communications from Secretary Clinton and Ms. Abedin to Teneo, or Teneo’s clients, were properly preserved.
According to Secretary Clinton, she built a private email server in her personal residence and used a private email account on that server. Use of the personal account prevented regular government records retention processes from preserving her work-related emails. Moreover, according to press reports, Ms. Abedin also had an email account on Secretary Clinton’s private server.
[…] The State Department Records Management manual, as well as federal law , imparts a number of records retention obligations on employees. These include the requirement that departing employees be reminded about their obligations in preserving their email communications and records, surrender classified and unclassified material for review prior to deletion, and attest that the surrender has in fact occurred. Given Secretary Clinton’s public comments, it is unclear to what extent she or Ms. Abedin complied with these requirements. (read more)
