It�s one of the most perplexing questions surrounding the
massive scandal over Clinton�s use of an unsecured, private e-
mail server when she served as secretary of state. How could it
be that no one in the State Department pointed out that Clinton
was violating government policy and putting sensitive
information at risk? Why didn�t her closest advisers warn that
the move could torpedo her resurgent presidential ambitions?

State Department staffers aren�t talking � not yet, at least.
But the thousands of Clinton e-mails reluctantly released by the
State Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act
lawsuit are illuminating. They reveal a secretary of state
heavily insulated from her agency�s rank-and-file by a devoted
inner circle, one which relentlessly lavished praise on Clinton
and sometimes functioned more like receptionists than top
strategic advisers. Many of the same confidantes appear set to
take high-level jobs in a future Clinton White House, meaning
her �yes-man problem� is likely to persist should she become
president. The vast majority of the 3,500 e-mails released so
far were sent or received by just four members of Clinton�s
inner circle at State: Cheryl Mills, Bill Clinton�s lawyer
during his impeachment trial, who became Secretary Clinton�s
chief of staff; Huma Abedin, Clinton�s longtime aide, who became
her deputy chief of staff; Jake Sullivan, a foreign-policy
adviser to Clinton�s 2008 presidential run, who became her top
foreign-policy adviser at State; and Philippe Reines, Clinton�s
long-serving Senate spokesperson, who became a senior adviser.

From day one, there was a sharp divide between the department�s
career officials and this personal coterie of loyalists who
followed Clinton into office. Reines lays out that divide
explicitly on May 1, 2009, in an e-mail to Mills disputing a New
York Times quote from a source �in [Clinton�s] circle� who
described tension between Clinton and retired General James
Jones, Obama�s national security adviser. �Someone in her circle
is someone like you, or a Jake, or me,� Reines wrote. �And none
of us would ever say anything like that. Someone who was slated
for a position at State irrespective of the choice of HRC as
Secretary should not be allowed to be identified that way.� E-
mail after e-mail shows how top State Department officials were
kept from dealing with Clinton directly, instead being rerouted
to the members of her inner circle. Though nominally in charge
of the Department�s public-affairs division, assistant secretary
P. J. Crowley was included in just 94 of the 3,500 e-mails, and
even on those he was often merely CCed. In all but a handful of
cases, Crowley�s messages to Clinton were first sent through
Mills, who then decided whether to forward them along to her
boss with a simple �FYI.� In the exchange involving General
Jones � clearly a high public-affairs priority for Clinton and
the State Department � Crowley was excluded altogether.

E-mails between Clinton and her personal advisers, meanwhile,
were brimming with fawning praise for the secretary. Dozens of
times, Mills forwarded messages from State Department observers
and lower-level staffers congratulating Clinton on a successful
speech or media appearance. �A little positive reinforcement to
pass on to the S,� read the subject line of one March 28, 2009 e-
mail, in which a University of Southern California lecturer
called her trip to Mexico a �stunning success� and �jaw-
dropping.� Mills also forwarded an April 30, 2009 message from
Paul Begala, a former Clinton adviser. �I gave Sec. Clinton an
A+ in our dopey CNN report card last night,� he wrote. �So did
Donna Brazile. The only two A+�s all night.� Clinton would
sometimes ask her staff to print the more effusive commendations.

Many other e-mails contain news reports or editorials
complimentary of Clinton�s tenure. �Andrew Sullivan with the
Hillary love,� read one e-mail from September 16, 2012, which
included a positive op-ed from the Boston Herald. �Higher ground
is where all great solutions and triumphs are found and scaled,�
wrote Roy Pence, a Clinton-family friend included on the e-mail
chain. �HRC, once again, is taking people there.� A perusal of
the documents revealed no e-mails highlighting negative media
coverage of the secretary. Some of the e-mails show an apparent
desire to bolster Clinton�s confidence in the shadow of
President Obama. In one especially effusive e-mail, Reines
praised Clinton�s July 26, 2009 appearance on Meet the Press.
�You threw a perfect game � or at least a no hitter,� he wrote,
saying her performance proved �you�re in a class all your own
(including the President who became enmeshed in the Gates
incident.)� While not officially a State Department employee,
Clinton shadow adviser Sidney Blumenthal attacked President
Obama while simultaneously congratulating Clinton. �I don�t know
about details of Obama�s plan, but you looked terrific at the
speech,� he wrote on September 11, 2009. In an August 22, 2011
missive lauding Clinton for presiding over the fall of Libyan
dictator Moammar Qaddafi, Blumenthal struck out at the
�flamingly stupid �leading from behind� phrase,� which an Obama
White House official had used to describe the intervention.

At times, Clinton�s inner circle seemed aware of the lengths
they�d go to buck up their boss. �Your arrival in Kabul landed
the front page picture in the NYT and sparked an on-line poll in
Huff Post about your coat. At last check, its favorability
rating is 77 percent,� wrote Crowley in a rare direct message to
Clinton on November 19, 2009. Reines, CCed on the message,
quickly wrote back. �Now I know why Huma has been at a computer
all day clicking the mouse incessantly,� he quipped.

When Clinton�s top advisers weren�t busy applauding the
secretary, she often engaged them in menial work. Abedin
received the brunt of it, with the deputy chief of staff being
instructed to �pls print� dozens of budget testimonies,
intelligence memoranda, Afghanistan updates, and a whole host of
other documents. But Mills, Clinton�s chief of staff, also
seemed caught up in minutiae, forwarding hundreds of e-mails to
Clinton in a matter of months and apparently operating as the
secretary�s personal e-mail screening service. Even Sullivan,
now a shoo-in for the prestigious position of national-security
adviser should Clinton win the presidency, wasn�t immune.
Clinton would often e-mail him an interesting news article with
the same accompanying instructions, �pls print.� And in April
2009, Sullivan was asked to compile a list of the key White
House attendees at AIPAC conferences throughout the years.
Isolated from the broader department and surrounded by seemingly
adoring advisers who were often buried in busy work, it�s
perhaps unsurprising that Clinton never thought through the
consequences of her private server use. But if history is any
indication, a staff shake-up is probably not in the offing.
Mills, Abedin, Reines, and Sullivan have served the Clintons for
years � some of them through scandals as bad, if not worse, than
the private-server fiasco. If Clinton wins in 2016, the only
place they�re likely to be going is the White House.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423015/hillary-clintons-
sycophantic-inner-circle-brendan-bordelon
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