Clinton delivers remarks at the Partnership Meeting on Wildlife Trafficking in 2012. State Department file photo
Hillary Clinton's Email Address at State Was in High Demand
A new batch of State Department emails shows that some powerful Washingtonians quickly got Clinton's private email address—and others were eager to get it.
A new batch of Hillary Clinton's emails released by the State Department make one thing clear—lots of people wanted Hillary Clinton's email.
More specifically, they wanted her email address—a non-governmental address that, as is widely-known now, was hosted on a private server she controlled. Following a court order, the State Department on Tuesday released more than 3,000 pages of emails that Clinton had turned over from her server, with several more batches of messages due before January 2016.
The newest tranche of messages, all of them from 2009, show that many top officials and powerful figures inside and outside the administration had Clinton's address, but some didn't.
In one exchange from June 8 of 2009, Clinton's chief of staff Cheryl Mills emails with a note saying "axelrod wants your email -- remind me to discuss with you if i forget," referring to then-senior White House adviser David Axelrod. Clinton replies, "can you send it to him or do you want me to?" They resolve that Mills will take care of it.
Then a Sept. 5 thread notes that Clinton and Obama's then chief of staff Rahm Emanuel were slated to speak and that she had asked him to email her. Mills emailed Clinton asking, "do you want him to have your email?" Clinton replied: "Yes."
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell had it, as was made clear in his June 19, 2009 email asking, after her mid-June 2009 elbow fracture: "Hillary, Is it true [Richard] Holbrooke tripped you? Just kidding, get better fast, we need you running around."
Lanny Davis, a prominent lawyer and longtime advisor to both Clintons, also had it. And so did Brian Greenspun, the publisher, CEO and editor of the Las Vegas Sun—and major donor to Clinton's 2008 presidential bid—who emailed Clinton at one point to let her know that "word has it the Israeli ambassador has been trying to meet with you to no avail." Clinton also received emails on the account from Neera Tanden, a top adviser to her 2008 campaign, and John Podesta, now her campaign chairman. ("Tried you a couple days ago, but email bounced back. Neera says this is the right one," Podesta wrote.)
Powell wasn't the only person to email about her injury. There's a June 23, 2009 message from Axelrod to Clinton urging her to rest and recover, adding: "You are an all-star player, and we need you for the long run!" Clinton thanked him a couple days later with a message that says it's an "honor" to serve Obama with Axelrod and that she and Axelrod should spend some time together comparing notes and catching up soon.
When former President Jimmy Carter emailed Clinton in July 2009, he did so via one of her aides—Lauren Jiloty. The subject was "N. Korea" and apparently concerned his efforts to get two detained female American journalists back from the country.
And not everyone preferred to use email to contact Clinton. "[Al] Gore just called saying he hasn't heard from you. he's expecting to hear from you tonite. I'm sorry," read a May 18, 2009 message from senior aide Huma Abedin to Clinton.
Elsewhere, the messages show various correspondence with longtime confidant Sidney Blumenthal who, as previous releases from State and the House Select Committee on Benghazi show, emailed with Clinton repeatedly about Libyan security and intelligence issues in 2011 and 2012.
The newly released tranche show 2009 messages between Blumenthal and Clinton on issues including U.K. politics, Iranian politics and more, with Blumenthal offering advice on various topics.
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