A prominent Washington watchdog group has filed a request with the U.S. State Department for copies of all communications between former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and members of her family now under federal indictment as part of an investigation into what it suspects is a major “influence-peddling” operation.
As deputy chief of staff for former Secretary of State Clinton, Abedin agreed to arrange State Department meetings with business partners of her first cousin, who is now under federal indictment for fraud. The partners scored at least $1.3 million in federal grant money, as WND first reported last week.
“Influence-peddling is putting it nicely,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, adding that the deal “warrants further investigation.”
Records show that Abedin’s first cousin, Omar Amanat, is under federal indictment for cheating investors in Kit Digital Inc. of millions of dollars between 2009 and 2012, forcing the tech start-up to go bankrupt in 2013. He has been placed under house arrest as he awaits trial, which is scheduled for Oct. 2.
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Another Abedin cousin, Irfan Amanat, is under indictment in the same case. He was arrested in December after returning to the U.S. from the United Arab Emirates.
Sperry is a former Hoover Institution media fellow and author of “Infiltration” and “Muslim Mafia.” Follow him on Twitter: @paulsperry_
Kit Digital appears in State Department emails sent to Abedin from Amanat and a business partner. In June 2009, not long after starting Kit Digital and just months after his cousin was named deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Clinton, Amanat helped his business partner solicit Abedin for State favors on behalf of Soliya Inc., which was in partnership with Kit Digital. Summit Entertainment, a film company Amanat held a controlling stake in at the time, also stood to benefit.
“Thanks for getting in touch. Would love to arrange a meeting,” Abedin replied in a June 23, 2009, email to Amanat and Shamil Idriss, who heads New York-based Soliya Inc.
In May 2010, Clinton helped Soliya get access to U.N. funding by making the U.S. a participant in a U.N. high-tech media initiative called the Alliance of Civilizations. Then in October 2010, the State Department directly awarded Soliya $1.25 million for a media technology project.
“Huma helped Omar make KIT appear more valuable because of its association with the Alliance of Civilizations, which was approved by Hillary and funded in part by US grants,” said an attorney familiar with the case. “This helped Omar raise money for KIT, which he and his brother misappropriated for other purposes. Approximately $6 million has vanished.”
Amanat took KIT Digital public in August 2009.
At the time, Amanat, known as a “serial swindler,” was in personal bankruptcy and being sued by other investors. Despite his reputation, he still managed to gain special access to the government thanks to his ties to his well-placed cousin and the Clinton Foundation.
Records show that Amanat and several other family members and related charities have together donated as much as $1.2 million to the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative, as well as the Clinton Health Access Initiative.
Amanat, who personally contributed as much as $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation, was appointed to the Council on Foreign Relations during the time that Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state.
Idriss is an Egyptian activist, who according to IRS 990s recently filed by Soliya, keeps an office in Cairo, which is the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement. Abedin, as well as her mother and father, have been members of organizations identified by the U.S. Justice Department as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood.
The federal funds received by Soliya were intended to, among other things, produce media content to combat “Islamophobia.”
A Judicial Watch investigator who filed the Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department for all emails and other documents related to Abedin and the Amanat, as well as Idriss, alleged that the trio were “blatantly involved in a pay-for-play scheme.”
“It’s so egregious how they think they can just get away with abusing the system – and not just the Clintons, but also Abedin and her own crime family,” he said in an interview.
Attempts to reach Abedin for comment were unsuccessful. Amanat’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Sperry is a former Hoover Institution media fellow and author of “Infiltration” and “Muslim Mafia.” Follow him on Twitter: @paulsperry_
