Abedin warned that Hillary “is often confused”

Judicial Watch, that heroic organization, has released a new batch of emails written by Huma Abedin, a top Hillary Clinton aide at the State Department. In one of them, from January 2013, Abedin advised another Clinton aide, that it was “very important” to go over phone calls with Clinton because the former Secretary of State was “often confused.” Here is the text:

Abedin: Have you been going over her calls with her? So she knows singh is at 8? [India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh]

Hanley: She was in bed for a nap by the time I heard that she had an 8am call. Will go over with her

Abedin: Very imp to do that. She’s often confused.

Here is the email thread:

JW v State Huma Emails 006841 (Dragged) 1

Given the closeness of their relationship, Abedin surely knows what she’s talking about in this regard. And readers may recall that Clinton overslept and missed a national security briefing in 2011, days after the Benghazi attack. On the day in question, she wrote: “just woke up so i missed Dan. Could he come back after finish my calls?”

The exchange between Abedin and Hanley occurred on January 26, 2013. A month earlier, Clinton apparently fell down and banged her head, causing some problems with her vision (recall the sunglasses). Clinton apologists have denied that she suffered any traumatic brain injury at the time. Will they now attribute her confusion to brain injury and argue that she’s fully recovered?

Abedin’s emails are revealing in other respects. According to Judicial Watch, they show repeated security breaches, with the Clinton’s schedule and movements being sent and received through Abedin’s non-governmental and unsecured Clinton server account.

In addition, again according to Judicial Watch, the emails document requests for special State Department treatment for a Clinton Foundation associate and Abedin’s mother, a controversial Islamist leader. In one instance, Abedin apparently worked with Teneo co-founder and Clinton Global Initiative official Doug Band to intercede on behalf of an individual seeking a visa. We wrote about Teneo and its relationship with Abedin and the Clintons here.

The second instance doesn’t strike me as very significant, but some readers may see it differently. Abedin received an email from her mother, Saleha Abedin (a controversial Islamist activist) who founded and serves as dean at Dar al-Hekma University in Saudi Arabia. In the December 11, 2011, email, Saleha Abedin sought the assistance of her daughter to help the president of her college, Dr. Suhair al Qurashi, attend a State Department “Women in Public Service” ceremony, which included remarks by Hillary Clinton. (Clinton spoke at Dar al-Hekma University in 2010. Dr. Qurashi and Saleha Abedin introduced Mrs. Clinton’s speech and moderated the subsequent discussion.)

But the big takeaway from this batch of emails is that the woman who worked as closely as anyone with Hillary Clinton found her boss “often confused.” Keep in mind, however, that Clinton will have the opportunity to dispel (or confirm) any such impression during next year’s debates with the Republican nominee.

JOHN adds: This email exchange in late January 2013 was about a month and a half after Hillary reportedly fell and sustained a concussion. That is a rather long, but not unreasonable, time for the symptoms of a concussion to persist, according to this source. Although she does not refer to the concussion in her email, I assume Huma would say that “she’s often confused” referred only to the time when Clinton was suffering the after-effects of her concussion.

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