If Anthony Weiner hadn’t decided to run for mayor, we might never have learned about the cushy deal Hillary Clinton’s State Department arranged for his wife.
But that deal has now caught the attention of Sen. Chuck Grassley. And the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican has sent State a letter asking 18 specific questions about how and why Huma Abedin was allowed to work simultaneously for Foggy Bottom and private clients.
Abedin was serving as Secretary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff when in June 2012 she returned from maternity leave and became a “special government employee.” That allowed her to work for State at $135,000 a year while collecting what looks to be much more than that from private clients, including Teneo, a consulting firm that describes itself as “working at the highest echelons of the public and private sectors.”
The added benefit of the arrangement was that it meant Abedin didn’t have to report this compensation on her financial-disclosure statement. Just as troubling, State continued to depict her as a deputy chief of staff and never publicly clarified her changed status.
State insists everything was done by the book — noting there are 125 appointees with similar status. Maybe so. But that only makes us wonder why the department wouldn’t ask the obvious: What exactly are these private clients buying by hiring current State Department employees as consultants if not their access to information?
Maybe there’s a good answer for a fishy arrangement. If there is, Secretary of State John Kerry should have no trouble getting back to Sen. Grassley with clear and straightforward answers.