(AP)
MOONLIGHTING: Huma Abedin, wife of Anthony Weiner, got work as a private consultant while on staff with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (
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WASHINGTON — One of the Senate’s most aggressive investigators is probing longtime Hillary Rodham Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s employment status, asking how she got a sweetheart deal to be a private six-figure consultant while still serving as a top State Department official.
Abedin, one of Clinton’s most loyal aides, is married to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who’s in the midst of a vigorous effort to beat back his own scandal and become mayor.
The inquiry by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), compiled in a three-page letter to Abedin and Secretary of State John Kerry, adds drama to Weiner’s bid.
The couple hauled in as much as $350,000 in outside income on top of Abedin’s $135,000 government salary after Weiner quit Congress amid a sexting scandal.
Abedin, who served as Clinton’s deputy chief of staff when Clinton was secretary of state, later became a “special government employee” who was able to haul in cash as a private contractor.
The change in status came to light only last month. Abedin took on the new assignment after she gave birth to son Jordan and began working from New York.
One of the clients she did consulting work for while on the government payroll was Teneo Holdings, a consulting firm founded by Bill Clinton aide Doug Band.
Grassley, the top Judiciary Committee Republican, wrote that he was concerned her status “blurs the line between public- and private-sector employees, especially when employees receive full-time salaries for what appears to be part-time work.”
He peppered Abedin and Kerry with 13 questions about her employment, including, “Who authorized the change in status in your official title?” and “Who was made aware of the change in status?”
A State Department official noted there were 100 such consultants at the agency, saying, “Ms. Abedin’s status was approved through the normal process.”
A person close to Abedin said she had been completely transparent about her employment, adding that Teneo conducts “no business” with State and that she “did not provide ‘political intelligence.’”
One source noted: “She has the Clinton disease. When your husband gets knocked down, get up . . . or else.”
Quoting from Teneo’s Web site, which calls the firm the “next chapter in strategic advisory,” Grassley’s letter asks, “In what ways did the department interact with the companies for which you consulted?”