Hillary Clinton stood by longtime aide Sidney Blumenthal when pressed by reporters Tuesday to explain the intelligence memos Blumenthal reportedly sent her while she served as secretary of state.
“I always think it’s important, when you get into politics, to have friends you had before you were in politics,” Clinton said after wrapping up a campaign event in Cedar Falls, Iowa. “He’s been a friend of mine for a long time.”
Clinton’s friendship with Blumenthal has become the subject of intense scrutiny following a New York Times report that suggested the former first lady may have seriously considered informal intelligence memos regarding Libya that Blumenthal based off his work with businessmen interested in securing State Department permits for work in that country.
“He sent me unsolicited emails, which I passed on, in some instances,” Clinton said. “I see that that’s just part of the give and take when you’re in the public eye.”
The presidential candidate said she worked to make sure she was not “caught in a bubble” at the State Department by relying on a small number of opinions.
Emails published by Gawker and ProPublica in 2013 revealed Blumenthal sent Clinton a series of memos regarding the unrest in Libya that led up to and followed the 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
“I’m going to keep talking to my old friends, whoever they are,” Clinton said.
