A CNN reporter has found herself in the middle of a scandal involving declassified state department emails that shows she was receiving orders from a government official whilst working for the American news broadcaster.

In January 2013 Elise Labott was covering a senate hearing on the US embassy attack in Benghazi.

The emails show she coordinated her posts on Twitter with Philippe Reines who was assistant deputy secretary of state at the time.

In the email Reines writes to Labott about an idea for a tweet.

Labott says she will get back to him and writes several minutes later that the job is done.

Clinton: I tried to be transparent. I could have joined the 18 ARBs, kept it classified and then said goodbye. That is not who I am. — Elise Labott (@eliselabottcnn) January 23, 2013

The tweet quotes Hillary Clinton saying she could have kept it all classified but that is not her way.

Several hours later Labott and Reines were in touch again.

The reporter was double checking details of Senator Rand Paul’s attendance at the inquiry. She used that information later in a tweet to claim that he was absent and reject his criticism as irrelevant.

She writes that Paul is “a little late to the Benghazi game”.

Sen Paul most critical on committee of Clinton, but a little late to the #Benghazi game.Not sure he was at many of the 30 previous briefings — Elise Labott (@eliselabottcnn) January 23, 2013

Newsbusters.org reports:

Amidst the e-mails obtained by Gawker (which included Politico’s Mike Allen promising soft pieces on Chelsea Clinton), Kerpen unearthed a series of instances where Labott (in words of Kerpen) “tweet[ed] on request” for the Clinton camp, ranging from so-called acts of transparency in her State Department to when exactly Clinton would depart her post in 2013.

(Last week, Labott tweeted: “House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees. Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish.”)

What follows are embedded tweets from Kerpen showing e-mails between Labott and Reines and subsequent tweets Kerpen found that match up these “tweets on request”:

“even though that’s not entirely true.” pic.twitter.com/kNcTs2HMX1 — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) November 25, 2015

A reporter who Tweets on request! pic.twitter.com/vdFGrYisgU — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) November 25, 2015

This one appears to also have been on-request. https://t.co/ETlmcHhH6S pic.twitter.com/o3GrXmVxIJ — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) November 25, 2015

Nice doing business with you. pic.twitter.com/hVsYcN7UqH — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) November 25, 2015

and here it is –> https://t.co/9ALDMiwuYy — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) November 25, 2015

Based on those e-mails, one can draw the conclusion that, when it comes to the relationship between the liberal media and Democratic administrations, the following saying couldn’t be any more accurate: It helps to have friends in high places.