Hillary Clinton Addresses Email Exchanges With Sidney Blumenthal

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to small business owners, Tuesday, May 19, 2015, at the Bike Tech cycling shop in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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Hillary Clinton on Tuesday addressed a New York Times report that she exchanged emails about Libya with Bill Clinton’s longtime ally, Sidney Blumenthal, while she was secretary of state.

After an event in Iowa, a reporter asked Clinton to explain her relationship with Blumenthal.

“I have many, many old friends, and I always think that it’s important when you get into politics to have friends you had before you were in politics, and to understand what’s on their minds,” Clinton said. “He’s been a friend of mine for a long time.”

“He sent me unsolicited e-mails which I passed on in some instances, and I see that that’s just part of the give and take,” she continued. “When you’re in the public eye and when you’re in an official position, I think you do have to work to make sure you’re not caught in a bubble and you only hear from a certain, small group of people. I’m going to keep talking to my old friends whoever they are.”

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Blumenthal sent emails to Clinton about events in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. According to the Times, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and the House Benghazi committee plan to interview Blumenthal about his correspondence with Clinton.

According to the Times, Clinton “took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond.”

The Times reported that some of the “intelligence that Mr. Blumenthal passed on to Mrs. Clinton appears to have come from a group of business associates he was advising as they sought to win contracts from the Libyan transitional government.” The venture was ultimately unsuccessful, according to the Times.

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Notable Replies

  1. “I’m rubber, you’re glue…”

    I predict the public is fatigued with “Clinton fatigue”.

  2. Avatar for serge serge says:

    Jesus, the RW has always had a hard-on for Sid Blumenthal. It was like he was personally holding Clinton’s dick while Ms Lewinsky gave him her best, to hear them back in '98. Just like old times, eh boys? I wish Gaudy Night the best of luck. He should be lucky not to get Max B. on his tail…that would be entertaining.

  3. Was there news in that Times story? I must have missed it.

  4. Avatar for bdtex bdtex says:

    She did fine.

  5. The Times reported that some of the “intelligence that Mr. Blumenthal passed on to Mrs. Clinton appears to have come from a group of business associates he was advising as they sought to win contracts from the Libyan transitional government.” The venture was ultimately unsuccessful, according to the Times.

    Smiley

    According to the Times, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and the House Benghazi committee plan to interview Blumenthal about his correspondence with Clinton.

    Sigh. Well I guess the next two years will be spent relentlessly searching for something, anything, to get Hillary Clinton.
    If this was something new and exclusive to Hillary, I’d probably be more outraged. But I suspect this is nothing new and happens quite frequently across all parties of government. Wish it weren’t so, but if you want to finger one, finger them all (no pun intended at all)

    This will be oppo research for Republicans, and they will have full and unfettered House (and Senate) resources in order to carry out their political agenda. Something is terribly wrong about that.

    We thought Vince Foster was bad…I don’t think we’ve seen nothin yet.

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