ANALYSIS/OPINION:

It’s coming clear now why Hillary Clinton wanted her own email server, free from oversight by anyone, and why she resisted so ferociously enabling anyone from getting even a hint to what she was hiding. Her presidency, if there is one, has been sold, and a new batch of emails pried out of the government by Judicial Watch reveals the going rate for Hillary.

The Kingdom of Bahrain got a secretary of State for something less than $100,000, though the Bahrain Petroleum Co., which is not separate because in these nationettes where nothing ever is, kicked in an additional “$25,000 to $50,000.” What they got was a returned telephone call. Whatever else she is, Hillary is not a cheap date.

The email exchanges in the 725 pages of the new State Department documents obtained through court proceedings tell how Huma Abedin, Hillary’s top aide and “body woman,” escorted influential donors, most of them oil-rich Muslims, through the maze of the Clinton Foundation to get to the secretary of State and the U.S. Government. It was pay to play. No pay, no play.

The point of Hillary’s friendship with Mzz Abedin comes ever clearer, too. With her ties to, connections with and knowledge of the murk and smarm of the Middle East, Mzz Abedin was crucial to the selling of the second Clinton presidency. Hillary learned well from Bubba, who learned the way to make corruption pay in Hot Springs, Arkansas, once the naughtiest little casino-and-racetrack town between Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Hot Springs has gone straight now, becoming a nice little family resort, no casinos or bordellos and lots of churches, in the foothills of the Ozarks. But Bubba has not, and neither has his Bonnie Parker. Robbing with guns is for the amateurs.

This new cache of State Department documents includes a revealing story about how, when Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain wanted to reach the secretary of State, he was told to call the Clinton Foundation to make an appointment. He had tried normal channels at the State Department. Hillary declined to meet him. After Doug Band, the top banana at the Clinton Foundation, intervened the prince had his appointment within 48 hours.

Mzz Abedin was clearly the woman to see for anyone, or any Arab country, who wanted to speak to Hillary. Within the 725 pages of the newly released documents is the story of how Mzz Abedin provided “direct access” to Hillary for donors who had contributed from $25,000 to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. Doug Band, who worked with the foundation throughout Hillary’s tortured tenure at the State Department, coordinated closely with Huma Abedin. She testified in a deposition to Judicial Watch in June that an important part of her job as Hillary’s body woman at the State Department was taking care of “Clinton family matters.”

These disclosures, in 20 email exchanges from her private server not previously turned over to the State Department, contradict Hillary’s assurance that as far as she knew, she had cheerfully turned over all of them. Nobody believed her, of course, because everyone who deals with Hillary quickly learns that anything she says that turns out to be true, is strictly coincidental.

The cash poured into the Clinton Foundation in such abundance that Arab sheiks and princes had to wait in line to accompany the cash with a kiss of Hillary’s ring (or whatever). The Clinton Foundation, on its internet website, reported that Prince Salman committed to establishing something called the Crown Prince International Scholarship Program, which five years later had contributed $32 million to the Clinton Global Initiative. A few million here and a few million there, and the prince still couldn’t get a telephone call returned.

Hillary, perhaps exhausted from hours in the counting house, has cut back sharply on campaign appearances. Growing health concerns to the contrary not withstanding, she’s busy, and it’s all about money. She spent the weekend in Nantucket, lunching on shrimp dumplings with wealthy backers, and then joined Bubba for a “LGBT celebration” on a secluded estate on Martha’s Vineyard. By the end of the weekend she had spoken to more than 2,000 donors.

Nobody knows what she promised in return for their cash because reporters were told to get lost, even the reporters and columnists for The New York Times and The Washington Post, who rarely contribute in cash but are Hillary’s most important contributors in kind. She has not held a press conference in nine months. She has not dispensed details or transcripts of speeches delivered, often a half-mil a pop, since she left Foggy Bottom three years ago. It’s more fun in the counting house.

• Wesley Pruden is editor-in-chief emeritus of The Times.

Sign up for Daily Opinion Newsletter Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.