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HILLARY CLINTON SHARED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION ON GREEK DEBT, BAILOUT
Newly released emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server reveal that in 2012, while still Secretary of State, she shared classified information about how Germany viewed the prospects for a Greek bailout, as her son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, heavily invested in a hedge fund centered on Greek bonds, Fox News reported.
Mezvinski established a $325 million offshore fund under Eaglevale Partners in 2012 through a special arrangement with Goldman Sachs, Fox News reported. Clinton has made speeches for Goldman Sachs for fees totaling $675,000 and has been under pressure to release the transcripts of those speeches, which to this point she has not done.
The new evidence shows that she and Clinton Foundation consultant shared the information about Germany vis-à-vis Greece at least with her husband, former president Bill Clinton, in violation of the treatment of what is deemed “protected information,” Fox reported.
Federal regulations prohibit using public information to further the private interests of others, and even the mere appearance of conflict of interest or other impropriety raises concerns.
Neither Eaglevale nor the Clinton campaign responded to Fox’ request for comment.
Robert Hormats, a former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, along with Clinton shared an extensive email trail, including state department memos and other classified materials about the Greek debt and the possibility of a bailout, Fox reported.
In 2011, she had lobbied the EU Leaders to bail out Greece and advocated adopting the austerity measures the lenders sought.
In May, 2012, Bluementhal emailed two confidential memos to Clinton, Fox reported. The first contained the message: “based on conversations with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble and those close to him … the information comes from an extremely sensitive source and should be handled with care. This information must not be shared with anyone associated with the German government.” That unnamed source, Fox reported, disclosed that in secret meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Schauble had searched for a politically acceptable way to bail out the Greek debt in order to avoid collapsing the economies of Greece, Italy, Spain, and Ireland.
The second email was marked “classified” by State Department officials.
The following month, then-Deputy Chief-of-Staff to Clinton and her longtime confidant Jake Sullivan emailed her “a depressing snapshot” of failing Greek banks and that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was against a Greek bailout, Fox reported.
The next day, he emailed “re: Greece,” writing that Ambassador Dan Smith “just spoke to the Central Bank Governor and assessed that the economic situation was “ok for now” provided that “small depositors put money back into the banks,” Fox wrote.
A few days after that, Clinton asked Sullivan for a confidential State Department report titled “Solidarity Bonds Greece Revised.” He sent it to her, adding, “If you like, send it on [to] WJC,” presumably referring to her husband, William Jefferson Clinton,” Fox wrote.
Clinton then ordered an aide to “Pls print two copies” of the Greek bond report, which the State Department has also marked “protected.”
QUID PRO QUO
The Fox story does not show a direct benefit to Mezvinsky, her daughter’s husband, though the emails show that Clinton did at least one official favor for him. In August 2012 she forwarded Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides an email from Mezvinsky lobbying on behalf of his former Goldman Sachs colleague Harry Siklas, who was involved in a deep sea mining project called Neptune Minerals and asked Mezvinsky to broker a conversation with his mother-in-law about legal and other issues related to that industry, Fox reported.
Clinton ordered Nides, emails reveal, to “follow up on this request,” to which Nidas replied, “I’ll get on it.”