Bombshells in top Clinton aides’ e-mails tie back to former Marc Rich partner

Ed Morrissey:

If we can’t see Hillary Clinton’s supposedly private e-mails for a while, we can make do with the e-mails of her closest aides. Bloomberg reports this morning that e-mails from Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin show that the State Department coordinated its efforts with the Clinton Foundation to benefit its donors:

Newly released e-mails from a top aide to Hillary Clinton show evidence of contacts between Clinton’s State Department and donors to her family foundation and political campaigns.

The e-mails released Tuesday by the conservative group Judicial Watch included a 2009 exchange in which Doug Band, a senior staff member at the Clinton Foundation, told a top Clinton aide at the State Department that it was “important to take care of” an individual, whose name was redacted.

That may look bad, but getting someone a job through connections is nothing new in Washington. Before the Nats arrived, it was the capital’s pastime. Using cash to leverage policy direction is a more serious matter. Longtime Clintonista Doug Band coordinated an effort to influence US policy on Lebanon by asking a “substance person” in that arena to connect with billionaire foundation donor Gilbert Chagoury:

In another 2009 exchange released Tuesday, Band asked Abedin and Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury in touch with a State Department “substance person” on Lebanon. The Chagoury Group co-founder has given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to a list of donors posted online.

And putting cash in the pocket of the person in power should be a disqualifying event for said candidate. The Daily Caller followed a string of e-mails to show how Bill Clinton scored speaking fees while the State Department went out of its way to benefit a big Clinton Foundation benefactor:

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly defended an embattled banker during an official visit to Bangladesh while Clinton Foundation officials tried to steer money from an Abu Dhabi oil company into the banker’s coffers.

A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation traced the convoluted payment by TAQA — formally known as the the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company — to Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank. Yunus is a long-time friend and Clinton Foundation donor.

The oil company deal eventually put as much as $500,000 into President Bill Clinton’s pockets via a speaking fee he got in Scotland. …

The emails show foundation officials were trying to complete a deal offered by TAQA managing director Leo Koot in Scotland. He agreed to give $60,000 to the foundation for Bill to speak at a Scotland charity and auction. The winner of the auction was to get a “Special Day with President Bill Clinton in New York.”

The foundation accepted the $60,000, and Bill went to Scotland where he received an additional $250,000 to $500,000 for his speech before a group called “Business For Change,” according to the Foundation’s website. The black tie dinner was to raise funds for Yunus and his Grameen Bank.

Yunus is a long-time friend of the Clinton’s, going back to Bill’s time as governor of Arkansas. He has often been a featured speaker at the annual Clinton Global Initiative celebrity galas in New York. His Grameen America foundation donated between $100,000 to $250,000, according to the Clinton Foundation website.

That’s hardly the only bombshell waiting to explode from the Clinton Foundation files. TheUranium One deal not only personally benefited the Clintons, it moved control of much of the US’ uranium assets into the hands of the Russians. The deal even had connections to the Marc Rich pardon, an astounding act of corruption at the end of the Clinton administration.

And guess who that connection was? Good ol’ Gilbert Chagoury, Marc Rich’s partner:

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