As the State Department’s Inspector General probe into Hillary Clinton’s tenure as the nation’s top diplomat reportedly widens, the presidential frontrunner’s campaign boss is trying to discredit the office’s lead investigator.
In comments published by The Hill on Tuesday, John Podesta responded to a source within the IG that its inquiry into the former Secretary’s use of a private email account has an “anti-Clinton” bias.
“This person’s account is highly troubling, and is cause to ask serious questions about the independence of this office,” Podesta told the outlet.
The Hill reported that a source close to the investigation claimed State IG Steve Linick is taking orders from his deputy, Emilia DiSanto, a former aide to the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Grassley himself has been investigating Clinton’s time at the State Department.
“Our work is becoming overtly anti-State Department, pro-Republican, and anti-Clinton,” the source told the paper, accusing Linnick of possibly posturing for a “more prestigious appointed position.”
Last fall, Linnick, who was twice-appointed by President Obama, broadened the IG search, and subpoenaed records related to charity projects financed by the Clinton Foundation. He has also been looking closely into Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s role as a “special government consultant” during her work at State, which allowed her to hold a paid position outside her gig at the department.
Both the Inspector General’s office and Sen. Chuck Grassley dismissed accusations of bias. “Partisan politics play no role in [the Office of Inspector General’s] work,” a spokesperson with the IG said.
One probe released last month focused on the department’s handling of Freedom of Information Act requests stretching back to President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State, Madeline Albright. It found that State took more than four times longer than other government agencies to respond to “simple requests” for documents.
“Any suggestion that the office is biased against any particular Secretary is completely false,” the IG office added.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Grassley, Jill Gerber, said the senator’s ties to the State Department IG is strictly a “professional relationship.” She blamed the Clinton camp for stonewalling.
“If Secretary Clinton and her aides want to resolve the many outstanding questions, they should start cooperating more fully with investigators and stop seeing a conspiracy only where there is independent oversight,” Gerber told The Hill.
On Monday, the State Department released under Freedom of Information Act request the last batch of emails that were stored on Clinton’s private server during her time as Secretary. More than 52,000 such records have been released in response to FOIA, however, 2,100 of those correspondences included redacted information deemed to be classified, fueling accusations that Clinton and her staff improperly transmitted government secrets through insecure channels.
