Hillary Clinton said three weeks ago in an interview that she had no direct involvement in arranging a new special government position for her top aide while secretary of state, but documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that the Democratic presidential front-runner personally signed off on the official forms approving the position change, reported Politico.
The special government employee (SGE) position allowed Huma Abedin to simultaneously collect salaries from the State Department as Clinton's deputy chief of staff, as well as from the corporate consulting firm Teneo and the Clinton Foundation.
The newly released documents, obtained by Judicial Watch as part of a FOIA request, show that Clinton signed off on Abedin's title change on March 23, 2012. Abedin's new position wasn't effective until that June.
In a Sept. 4 interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell, Clinton was asked whether it was appropriate for Abedin to be taking a State Department salary and also a salary from an outside company closely associated with Clinton and her husband, according to Fox News.
"Well, I was not directly involved in that, but everything that she did was approved under the rules as they existed by the State Department," Clinton responded.
Clinton has denied any wrongdoing. Her presidential campaign told Politico Thursday that the document merely shows that Clinton approved the title change, not the actual approval of change to the special government employee position.
The document shows that Clinton gave "supervisory certification" of the following statement regarding Abedin's new position: "I certify that this is an accurate statement of the major duties and responsibilities of this person ... and the position is necessary to carry out government functions for which I am responsible."
In a letter written last month to Abedin and Secretary of State John Kerry, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the State Department's inspector general found "reasonable suspicion" that Abedin may have violated conflict-of-interest laws, reported The Washington Free Beacon.
"How can the taxpayer know who exactly SGEs are working for at any given moment? How can the ethics officer at the State Department know?" Grassley asked.
Abedin now serves as the vice chair of Clinton's presidential campaign.
