Huma Abedin's records waylaid for 2 months

Soros' Politico ^ | 8/6/15 | JOSH GERSTEIN

[MarvinStinson]

Abedin's records waylaid for 2 months

The State Department's request that Hillary Clinton's former deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, return any work-related emails in her possession went unreceived for two months because of issues with delivery of State's mail and email messages asking for the records, according to Abedin's lawyers.

After the controversy over former secretary of state Clinton's use of a private email account and server for official business erupted in March, Abedin was among 10 current or former State Department officials asked by their former agency to provide any similar messages on their private accounts.

But Abedin's lawyers said she didn't receive that request for more than two months after it was sent on March 11.

"Our ability to respond unfortunately was slowed by circumstances beyond Ms. Abedin's control," Abedin attorneys Karen Dunn and Miguel Rodriguez wrote in a June 29 letter made public in a court filing Thursday. "The Department's initial correspondence, sent by mail and dated March 11 , 2015, was returned undelivered to the Department on April 17, 2015. Similarly, we understand that your office attempted to send an electronic mail copy of that letter to Ms. Abedin, but that email was sent to domains (@clinton.senate.gov and @hillaryclinton.com) that, as of March 2015, had not been active for the past several years."

"Your request ultimately reached Ms. Abedin through counsel on May 19, 2015, when we received your letter via mail, along with the returned envelope and a cover note dated May 12, 2015 explaining that the letter had been returned undelivered. As a consequence, Ms. Abedin received the Department's request for documents more than two months after it was initially intended to reach her," Dunn and Rodriguez wrote.

It's unclear why State Department officials had so much trouble tracking down Abedin, who is currently vice chair of Clinton's presidential campaign. It's also not clear whether State's snail-mail letter was sent to an old address for Abedin, a wrong address for her or was returned for some other reason. The State Department declined to comment on the delay.

The letters filed Thursday in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Associated Press (and posted here) indicate that Abedin turned over copies of some records to State beginning on June 9. At least three other Clinton aides, former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, Director of Policy Planning Jake Sullivan and communications adviser Philippe Reines have also returned records to the department in response to the same flurry of requests.

[JmyBryan]

Imagine if the State Department had to do something important.

[MarvinStinson]

I hope that Weiner with his weiner doesn’t stand too close to the paper shredder.

[MarvinStinson]

Important?

The Valley Girl spokeswomen for the State Dept. do lots of important stuff.

Haven’t you ever listened to them?

[Eroteme]

This is not just Huma humminahummining. Looks to me like State deliberately dragged its feet making the request. No one at the State Dept bothered to pick up a phone in 3 months? Right. Damnguaranteed they have her phone number. Funny, they had her lawyer’s address but not Huma’s address or phone number.

If State did, in fact, send the email to Abedin at Hillary’s email addresses, then it appears that State was deliberately running interference for her. Would there be anyone at the State Dept. NOT aware that Hillary’s server had been “shut down”?

As for the undelivered snail mail...Interesting, that word, “Undelivered.” If the State Dept. had addressed it with an erroneous address, bogus, or an old address, Abedin’s lawyer would have jumped all over that, saying it was sent to the wrong address and returned “undeliverable.” This suggests to me that it was a certified letter that Abedin would have had to sign for. All she had to do to buy herself a month was to not go to the post office to pick up the letter. (How about we send it certified? Wink wink.)

Huma was not only given a heads up that the request for the emails had been made, she was (imho) in collusion with someone or many at State to frustrate and delay production.