AP: Uh, Clinton’s State Department Calendar Omits A Lot Of Meetings With Political Donors

Matt Vespa:

So, remember the promise of transparency Hillary Clinton offered regardingfinancial donations, especially those going to her family non-profit, which she reiterated after scores of donations were discovered to be undisclosed? Yeah, she’s still not out of the woods on this front. The Associated Press reviewed Clinton’s official calendar when she served as secretary of state and found that scores of missing meetings with political and Foundation donors were omitted. AP added that these revelations only compound the growing concerns that Hillary isn’t trustworthy or honest, given how she and her minions seem to have been less than forthcoming concerning the documentation of her time as our top diplomat (via AP):

An Associated Press review of the official calendar Hillary Clinton kept as secretary of state identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were not recorded or omitted the names of those she met. The fuller details of those meetings were included in files the State Department turned over to AP after it sued the government in federal court.[…]

The AP found the omissions by comparing the 1,500-page calendar with separate planning schedules supplied to Clinton by aides in advance of each day’s events. The names of at least 114 outsiders who met with Clinton were missing from her calendar, the records show.

No known federal laws were violated and some omissions could be blamed on Clinton’s highly fluid schedule, which sometimes forced late cancellations. But only seven meetings in Clinton’s planning schedules were replaced by substitute events on her official calendar. More than 60 other events listed in Clinton’s planners were omitted entirely in her calendar, tersely noted or described only as “private meetings” — all without naming those who met with her.

[…]

In one key omission, Clinton’s State Department calendar dropped the identities of a dozen major Wall Street and business leaders who met with her during a private breakfast discussion at the New York Stock Exchange in September 2009, The meeting occurred minutes before Clinton appeared in public at the exchange to ring the market’s ceremonial opening bell.

Despite the omission, Clinton’s State Department planning schedules from the same day listed the names of all Clinton’s breakfast guests — most of whose firms had lobbied the government and donated to her family’s global charity. The event was closed to the press and merited only a brief mention in her calendar, which omitted all her guests’ names — among them Blackstone Group Chairman Steven Schwarzman, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and then-New York Bank of Mellon CEO Robert Kelly.

Clinton’s calendar also repeatedly omitted private dinners and meetings with political donors, policy sessions with groups of corporate leaders and “drop-bys” with old Clinton campaign hands and advisers. Among those whose names were omitted from her calendar were longtime adviser Sidney Blumenthal, consultant and former Clinton White House chief of staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty, former energy lobbyist Joseph Wilson and entertainment magnate and Clinton campaign bundler Haim Saban.

There are many other CEOs listed in the story. The news organization asked for Clinton’s calendar and schedule back in 2013, but the State Department wouldn’t say they even had those documents. The Associated Press was forced to file a lawsuit against State to obtain the documents in 2015, which were then finally turned over for review. They noticed that unlike her planning schedule, her calendar was edited after each of the former secretary of state’s events. Clinton, Huma Abedin, and scheduling assistant Lona J. Valmoro held weekly meetings over her schedule and corresponded by email over Clinton’s plans daily. Whoever edited the calendar, which was kept on Microsoft Outlook, is unknown. Both Abedin and Valmoro now work on Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Read more