Heather Samuelson worked under Cheryl Mills and Clinton’s attorney David Kendall to sift through her ex-boss’ messages.
Hillary Clinton chose a former campaign staffer who followed her to the State Department to make the initial determination about which of her emails should be preserved as federal records, according to closed-door testimony by Clinton’s former chief of staff Cheryl Mills, a GOP source told POLITICO.
Heather Samuelson, a lawyer and 2008 Clinton campaign staffer, worked under Mills and Clinton’s attorney David Kendall to sift through her ex-boss’ messages. She helped separate those that were purely personal, which were not turned over to the State Department, from those that were work-related.
The news that another Clinton loyalist — who, according to the GOP source, had no background in federal records keeping — helped make those determinations raised concerns among conservatives. Republicans had wanted an independent watchdog to do the job of separating the emails.
Samuelson, 34, could not be reached for comment, and Kendall, Mills’ attorney, and the Clinton campaign did not respond to inquiries about who represents Samuelson or whether she has an attorney. They declined comment, as did spokespeople for the House Benghazi Republicans and Democrats.
But Clinton-related sources said that Kendall and Mills, not Samuelson, ultimately made the determinations about which emails should be preserved before Clinton decided to delete the rest.
Clinton: “I’m ‘sorry’ the email scandal is confusing to people.”
In recent weeks, the Benghazi committee has been trying to retrace the steps of the email production process after finding 15 undisclosed Clinton emails in a subpoenaed batch they received from her longtime ally Sid Blumenthal in late June. Those were work-related and should have been turned over in Clinton’s original December 2014 production, Republicans argue. They are concerned that more may have been kept from the public.
She stayed there four years before joining Hillary Clinton for President in January 2007. For nine months she worked on compliance issues before serving as director of vetting in the campaign’s counsel’s office.
When Clinton moved to State, so did she, working for four years as senior advisor and White House liaison at the State Department from January 2009 to March 2013.
She then served as assistant counsel at the White House from then until April of 2014.
Source: Hillary Clinton emails insider: Heather Samuelson screened messages
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