A second cache of newly released emails during Hillary Clinton's stint at secretary of state glaringly illustrates how special access was given Clinton Foundation donors — from Middle Eastern royalty to international sports and music stars — by Clinton's staff, Judicial Watch charged Monday.
The conservative watchdog group made public 725 pages of State Department documents, many of which included previously unreleased email exchanges between Clinton's longtime aide Huma Abedin and Doug Band, a then-employee of the Clinton Foundation — and 20 Clinton email exchanges that Judicial Watch asserts weren't part of the 55,000 pages of emails Clinton turned over to the State Department.
Earlier this month, Judicial Watch released another batch highlighting the privilege afforded Clinton Foundation donors at Clinton's State Department.
According to Judicial Watch, in one blatant example of privileged access in the new batch, Abedin coordinated with Band to set up a meeting between the Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain and Clinton after Salman couldn't get a meeting set up through normal State Department channels.
In the email chain, Band stresses Salman was a "good friend of ours," Judicial Watch reports, noting the Kingdom of Bahrain has given up to $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Also included among the Abedin-Band email chains is an exchange in which Band urged Abedin to get the State Department to intervene in order to obtain a visa for members of a U.K. football club, one of whose members was having trouble cause of a "criminal charge," Judicial Watch reports.
Band was acting at the behest of millionaire Hollywood sports entertainment executive and president of the Wasserman Foundation, Casey Wasserman, who has donated between $5-10 million to the Clinton Foundation, Judicial Watch reports.
The Abedin emails also show former Bill Clinton aide Ben Schwerin, who helped set up the Clinton Foundation, urged Abedin to help U2's Bono to broadcast from the international space station, according to Judicial Watch.
"These new emails confirm that Hillary Clinton abused her office by selling favors to Clinton Foundation donors," Judicial Watch's president Tom Fitton said in a statement.
"There needs to be a serious, independent investigation to determine whether Clinton and others broke the law."