In her speech to Georgetown University students Friday, failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that cutting international diplomacy and aid efforts would “undermine our security.” But Clinton may be the one responsible for undermining security, for far longer than anyone previously thought.
According to documents obtained by Fox News and from Sen. Chuck Grassley, Clinton was allowed to view highly classified documents well after she left the State Department, all the way until she launched her fledgling Presidential campaign in 2015.
Six of Clinton’s former staffers were also allowed to retain their clearances and access classified documents after leaving the State Department, reportedly so that they could help Clinton “write her memoirs” accurately.
Grassley says that the access is “unprecedented” and claims that Clinton received “special treatment” from the Obama Administration.
He and several other Senators have already sent a letter to current Secretary Rex Tillerson, asking for further information on what Clinton accessed after leaving State, and why the other staffers were given similar privileges on what he seems to believe is a flimsy excuse.
The Obama-era State Department has been dogging the Trump Administration. That’s not just because of lackadaisical information handling but because State seems to be ground zero for what Trump officials have come to call the “Deep State”: a collection of Obama-era hires that haven’t been booted from their positions who are reportedly trying to cause headaches for the Republican president.
Most recently, Tillerson himself was the target of a “deep State” attack, after aides complained to the Washington Post that Tillerson demands diva-level treatment, including forcing staffers to avoid eye contact with him when he entered a room.
The Associated Press‘s diplomatic beat writer called the allegations untrue and blamed people hired after Obama took office for the nonsensical claims.
Grassley says that it may take years to root out all of the Clinton-era problems in the State Department, but intends to try to do it anyway.