Clinton's use of a personal e-mail account as her sole account while secretary of state has prompted criticism. The mystery man behind Hillary's email controversy

The mystery man linked to Hillary Clinton’s personal email account appears to be a Washington, D.C., stockbroker and former aide to the Clintons who played a walk-on role in controversies that dogged the former first family soon after they left the White House in 2001.

The initial Associated Press report Wednesday about Hillary Clinton’s use as secretary of state of a personal e-mail server installed in her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., traced the creation of the system to a man named Eric Hoteham. There’s virtually no trace of an individual by that name in public records or other online databases.


However, a Clinton aide named Eric Hothem was linked to a flap in 2001 about the Clintons’ shipment of furniture and other items from the White House at the end of President Bill Clinton’s second term.

White House usher Gary Walters said Hothem told him that the furnishings “were the Clintons’ personal property,” The Washington Post reported at the time. The White House Counsel’s Office determined that some of the items were personal gifts to the first family, but the National Park Service said others belonged to the White House.

Walters said at the time he had not done enough to question the assurances offered by Hothem and others. The Clintons ultimately paid $86,000 for gifts they took with them and returned several items of furniture to the White House.

Hothem is also mentioned in a 2002 House Government Reform Committee report as having played a role in a $15,000 wire transfer from the Clintons to Roger Clinton, Bill Clinton’s brother. The panel was probing pardons and commutations President Clinton granted at the end of his presidency.

The House report identifies Hothem as “an aide to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton” and says the $15,000 was sent from a Citibank account in care of Hothem. Longtime Clinton lawyer David Kendall told the panel that the payment was directed to Roger Clinton and intended to help him pay for legal counsel to represent him in the investigation.

The committee report said Roger Clinton deposited $335,000 in travelers checks in a U.S. bank during a two-year period. Clinton’s attorney said the checks were payments for musical performances overseas.

Hothem’s wife, Sue, is a fundraiser and consultant with long ties in Democratic politics. She served as development director for the Democratic Leadership Council and Progressive Policy Institute, centrist Democrat groups that helped bring Bill Clinton to national attention. She later worked for fundraising firm Benchmark Strategies and was named last fall as membership director for the high-tech lobbying group, TechNet.

Industry records show Eric Hothem has been a licensed stockbroker in Washington since 2003, first with Citigroup and more recently with JPMorgan. Hothem didn’t immediately return a message from POLITICO seeking comment.

As Hillary Clinton prepares to launch a bid for the White House, her use of the personal email account as her sole account while secretary of state has prompted both criticism from open government advocates and attacks from Republicans. The State Department said this week that she forwarded 55,000 pages of emails from the account to the agency in December in response to a request for any work-related emails she or prior secretaries of state sent or received on personal accounts.