Huma Abedin (left) and Hillary Clinton (right)
State Department investigators subpoenaed the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation last fall and made sure to include former "special government employee" Huma Abedin in their crosshairs.
State IG spokesman and representatives of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign had no comment for the Washington Post after its story broke Thursday afternoon. At issue are projects the organization engaged in that may have required approval from the federal government prior to going forward.
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News of the subpoena further undercuts the Democrat candidate's repeated claims that she never violated a subsection of the Espionage Act related to “gross negligence” in handling government documents during her time as President Obama's secretary of state. Clinton said just one week ago she was "100 percent confident" the FBI's investigation into her "home brew" email server would turn up no wrongdoing on her part.
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Agents are also trying to determine whether co-mingling of the Clinton Foundation and State Department business violated public corruption laws.
A foundation representative, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity, said the State Department's initial document request had been narrowed by investigators and that the foundation is not the focus of the probe. The subpoena also sought records related to Abedin's work while she was simultaneously employed by the Clinton's personal office, a private consulting firm linked to the Clintons, and the State Department.
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IG inquiries may result in criminal charges, but the tools at investigators' disposal are limited. They can subpoena documents without gaining approval of a grand jury or a judge, for instance, but they cannot force the target of an investigation to provide testimony.
Both Clintons have denied accusations of wrongdoing. Former President Bill Clinton officially ran the organization while Hillary served as secretary of state.
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Clinton lost the New Hampshire primary earlier this week to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by a landslide, even though the self-described socialist refuses to talk about her email scandals. Sanders secured 60 percent of Democrat primary voters to Clinton's 39 percent and will try to add to his momentum in South Carolina’s primary election Feb. 27.
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