State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin was "fully vetted" before being cleared to work at the State Department.
Toner was responding to questions from Fox News reporter James Rosen about the revelations that Abedin worked at the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs for more than a decade. The extreme Muslim magazine published articles blaming the U.S. for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and opposing women's rights, including an editorial published by Abedin’s mother saying empowering women did more harm than good.
"When Ms. Abedin was cleared to work here in the Department of State, one of the two jobs she held down during her tenure here, was Ms. Abedin’s association with this journal known to the secretary or to anyone else in this building?" Rosen asked.
Toner said he had not seen the reports but could "assure" him that anyone who reached Abedin’s clearance level had been properly vetted.
"What I would say is that we wouldn't normally talk about someone's clearance process, except to say that having gone through [a] security clearance process and considering the level of clearance she would have needed for the jobs that she held, I can assure you that she was, like any individual would be, fully vetted," he said. "But I can’t speak to these specific allegations."
Abedin has been a loyal Clinton aide since the former first lady’s White House years and is widely seen as Clinton’s closet confidante.
Full exchange:
JAMES ROSEN: Finally, since we just touched on Ms. Abedin, some unrelated questions about her. The New York Post has been reporting on the presence of Huma Abedin for more than a decade on the masthead of an Islamic journal that published some fairly vile things, including blaming the U.S. for 9/11 and an article by Ms. Abedin’s mother in which she wrote that the, quote, ‘empowerment of women does more harm than benefit,’ unquote. When Ms. Abedin was cleared to work here in the Department of State, one of the two jobs she held down during her tenure here, was Ms. Abedin’s association with this journal known to the secretary or to anyone else in this building?
MARK TONER: James, I don’t have an immediate answer on that. I haven’t seen these reports, to be honest. What I would say is that we wouldn’t normally talk about someone’s clearance process, except to say that having gone through [a] security clearance process and considering the level of clearance she would have needed for the jobs that she held, I can assure you that she was, like any individual would be, fully vetted. But I can’t speak to these specific allegations.