Sidney Blumenthal, whose leaked emails led to the story of Hillary Clinton’s private email servers, has become a headache for Clinton since the New York Times exposed he wrote a series of memos to Clinton updating her about events in Libya.
Clinton forwarded the memos to other government officials, even though the Obama administration forbade him from being hired.
Blumenthal was paid by the Clinton Foundation and had a number of contacts business interests with the new government in Libya, which provided a conflict of interest.
"Shady would be a kind description of Sidney Blumenthal," John Heilemann said.
Clinton, breaking her near month long silence with the media, addressed the report by defending her "old friend."
"I have many, many old friends, and I always think that it's important when you get into politics to have friends that you had before you were in politics ... and I'm going to keep talking to my old friends, whoever they are," Clinton said.
Political commentators Mark Halperin and Heilemann were flabbergasted by Clinton’s response.
"She does have many, many old friends but given almost everybody in Obama world thinks he is trouble with a capital T. A lot of people in Hillary Clinton's world think that—why is she standing by her man?" Halperin asked.
"He’s done so much dirty work for them."
Heilemann gave a scathing review of the Clinton’s relationship with Blumenthal.
"There are two things that are true about the Clintons in this area. One, they like people who work in the dark–they like that. And they like loyalty. He has been loyal to her and they like the ‘masters of the dark arts.’ They have an insatiable appetite for that."
Halperin delivered a final diagnosis of the New York Times report and Clinton’s answer.
"Boy, this is bad news."