Clinton Flayed By A Former Security Agent

OCTOBER 17--A federal agent who worked on Hillary Clinton’s protective detail accused the Democratic presidential nominee of “blatantly” disregarding security and diplomatic protocols while she was Secretary of State, adding that, in one instance, Clinton placed others in “unnecessary danger” while conducting a photo op for “her election campaign.”

In a September 2015 FBI interview, the agent also alleged that Clinton’s treatment of agents protecting her “was so contemptuous” that “many of them sought reassignment or employment elsewhere.”

According to an FBI interview report, the agent had worked for the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but now is employed as a Department of Homeland Security special agent.

The agent’s name is redacted from the report, which was among 100 pages of documents uploaded today to the FBI’s web site. The material is the latest release of records related to the bureau’s investigation of Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while she was Secretary of State.

The agent said that during foreign trips, Clinton left United States ambassadors “insulted and embarrassed” by refusing to allow them to ride with her in an armored limousine. Instead, Clinton chose to be accompanied by Huma Abedin, her longtime aide. The federal agent alleges that Abedin “was often responsible for overriding security and diplomatic protocols on behalf of Clinton.”

During a 2009 trip to Indonesia, agents reportedly advised Clinton not to visit an area in Jakarta due to safety concerns. The trip, though, happened because Clinton “wanted it” for a photo op related to an initiative to provide “clean cooking stoves.” The agent said that members of Clinton’s protective detail felt that “this excursion into potentially hostile areas” placed “Clinton, her staff, the media, and her security detail in unnecessary danger in order to conduct a photo opportunity" for a future presidential campaign.

Clinton is pictured above during the Jakarta visit.

While traveling in Palestine, the agent said, Clinton ordered her limousine driver to open the vehicle’s driver’s window while in a “dangerous area of the West Bank.” The driver initially declined to respond to Clinton, but after “repeated demands” from her, he was “forced to open his window despite the danger to himself and the occupants.” The windows in the limo's passenger section did not open, the agent said.

The agent alleged that Clinton’s treatment of diplomatic security agents was “so contemptuous” that many veteran agents sought “reassignment or employment elsewhere.” A posting on the Secretary of State’s security detail was once seen as “an honor and privilege reserved for senior agents,” the agent said. But by the end of Clinton’s tenure, the agent claimed, her detail was “staffed largely with new agents because it was difficult to find senior agents willing to work for her.”

The agent told the FBI that they had “at least one conversation with Secret Service agents who experienced the same poor treatment” from Clinton. (3 pages)