Chelsea Clinton expressed "serious concerns" about a longtime Bill Clinton aide whose consulting firm benefited by using the former president’s name to connect paying clients to government officials, according to newly released WikiLeaks emails.
The emails reveal internal tensions among Clinton Foundation staff, namely former Clinton adviser Doug Band, and Chelsea Clinton after she raised concerns that employees at Band’s international consulting firm Teneo were using her father’s name without his consent while conducting business, Politico reported Tuesday.
The Clinton daughter had attempted to stymie practices that blurred lines between the Clinton Foundation, international governments, and Teneo, which employed Bill Clinton as a paid adviser.
Chelsea Clinton sent an email to top family confidantes in December 2011 after visiting London, where she said at least two people had raised "serious concerns" about a Teneo employee representing clients who had called members of the British Parliament "on behalf of President Clinton" without her father’s consent, according to an exchange published by WikiLeaks on Monday.
"I will raise all of this and more with my father this evening," she wrote. "Wanted to update you all in the meanwhile about my augmented concerns post London."
Band vented to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in response to the message, calling her a "spoiled brat kid" who runs "to daddy to change a decision or interject herself in the process."
WikiLeaks released 2,000 documents from Podesta’s email account on Monday, just three days after the U.S. government formally accused the Russian government of hacking into political networks to influence the 2016 election. The leaked emails reignited concerns of pay-to-play tactics between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department under Hillary Clinton’s leadership.
Band brushed aside Chelsea Clinton’s concerns, telling Podesta his company Teneo "has almost nothing to do with the Clintons, the foundation, or [the Clinton Global Initiative] in any way."
Politico reported in April 2013 that one of Teneo’s founders, Declan Kelly, was working for the State Department under Hillary Clinton while laying the foundation for the multi-million-dollar firm. Kelly met Band—referred to as Bill Clinton’s surrogate son—in 2008 while he was campaigning for Hillary Clinton’s first presidential bid.