New Emails Reveal "Friends Of Bill" Got Special Access From State For Haiti Recovery Contracts

Newly released emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit by the Republican National Committee, and subsequently shared with ABC News, reveal very open special treatment of "Friends of Bill" ("FOB" for short) by the State Department in granting access to recovery efforts in Haiti, in which $10 billion in emergency aid was spent after the 2010 earthquake.

The emails show very close coordination between Caitlin Klevorick, a senior State Department official, and Amitabh Desai, the director of foreign policy for the Clinton Foundation, as they exchanged emails from Foundation donors looking to participate in the Haiti recovery efforts. While many donors likely were just looking to make charitable contributions, others, as evidenced below, were simply looking to capture their "fair share" of $10 billion in emergency aid contracts doled out by the U.S. government.

The following exchange between Klevorick and Dasai, with the subject line "Haiti Assistance," shows the State Department very clearly asking for "Friends of Bill" to be flagged for special consideration.

“Need you to flag when people are friends of WJC,” wrote Caitlin Klevorick, then a senior State Department official who was juggling incoming offers of assistance being funneled to the State Department by the Clinton Foundation. “Most I can probably ID but not all.”

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