Longtime aide Huma Abedin like ‘second daughter’ to Clinton

“With Huma, her grace, her intellect and her humility have been unmatched as I’ve watched her go from an aide to an adviser to one of the people at the top of my campaign,” Clinton said in a recent profile of Abedin in Vogue.

With roughly two months to Election Day, Abedin is Clinton’s near-constant travel companion and has long exerted great influence within Clinton’s inner circle — a role in which she is expected to continue should Clinton win the White House. Few major decisions in the campaign are made without Abedin’s input, and she remains an important back-channel in the Clinton orbit of friends, political allies and donors.

Stylish and poised, Abedin carries enough clout within Clinton circles to headline high-profile fundraisers, as she did in 2015 alongside Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour in Paris, raising money from Americans living abroad. She’s close enough to the Clintons that former President Bill Clinton officiated when Abedin and Weiner married in 2010.

Before The New York Post published photos late Sunday that it said Weiner sent last year to a woman identified as a “40-something divorcee,” Abedin was spotted outside a Clinton fundraiser at the Southampton home of philanthropist Marcia Riklis.

A friend of Abedin, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the breakup, said she was with her young son, Jordan, and her family members in the Hamptons during the weekend. Abedin’s friend said the separation from Weiner had been brewing for some time.

At the State Department, Abedin served as a jack-of-all-trades to Clinton, helping her with everything from scheduling meetings and arranging phone calls around the globe to offering fashion advice. In an early morning email to Clinton in August 2009, Abedin advised her to “wear a dark colour today. Maybe the new dark green suit. Or blue.”

Wearing a green suit, Clinton later held a joint news conference with the Jordanian foreign minister.

That behind-the-scenes role has also put Abedin firmly in the spotlight, often drawing unwanted attention. Her email exchanges with Clinton were closely scrutinized during the Justice Department’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. Federal prosecutors ultimately declined to issue charges in the cases.

Congressional Republicans have raised questions about whether Abedin skirted ethics guidelines during her 2012 work as an adviser to Clinton while she also worked for Teneo Holdings, a consulting firm co-founded by Doug Band, a former aide to former President Bill Clinton.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has repeatedly questioned Abedin’s designation as a special government employee, pushing for more disclosure about the decision that allowed her to hold both jobs.

Republicans have also alleged that donors to the foundation got preferential treatment while Clinton was secretary of state. Last week, the group Judicial Watch released several previously undisclosed exchanges turned over by Abedin that included a 2009 message to Abedin from Band — an official at the Clinton Foundation at the time — seeking a meeting with Hillary Clinton for the crown prince of Bahrain.

Crown Prince Salman had made a $32 million commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, a program run by the foundation. Copies of Clinton’s calendar obtained by The Associated Press confirm the meeting occurred in her State Department office on June 26, 2009. The State Department has said there was nothing improper or unusual about the messages with Clinton Foundation staff.

Like her boss, Abedin has at times come under criticism laced with conspiracy. Some conservatives have suggested Abedin has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political movement, citing her listing as an assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, a publication edited by her mother.

In a recent fact-check piece, The Washington Post called the publication a “sober academic journal” and said the accusations of affiliation were “bogus.”

It was those kind of attacks that led Weiner to recently tell The New York Times it was “gut-wrenching” to watch his wife dragged into the political fray. “I’ve never seen a staffer targeted like that,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.

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On Twitter, follow Ken Thomas at: http://twitter.com/kthomasDC and Catherine Lucey at http://twitter.com/catherine_lucey

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This version corrects Abedin’s age to 41, not 40.

Ken Thomas And Catherine Lucey, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Longtime aide Huma Abedin like ‘second daughter’ to Clinton

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