Hillary Clinton and former Ambassador Joe Wilson are pictured during a campaign event in 2008. | Getty Clinton gave nod to ex-Ambassador Wilson's company for contract Wilson and the contractor are now in court.

Hillary Clinton gave her endorsement to a company linked to Joe Wilson, the former ambassador and political supporter, as it sought a reconstruction contract in Afghanistan from the State Department, newly released emails reveal.

The correspondence released early this morning, Wilson (the diplomat who challenged the Bush administration's weapons of mass destruction theory before his wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a spy) asked the secretary of state in December 2009 about a USAID-funded electrification project in Afghanistan on behalf of Symbion Power, a company he has represented. The existing contractors "should just get out and let companies like Symbion, who have a proven track record get in there and roll up our sleeves," Wilson wrote.


Clinton forwarded Wilson's note and a memo from the company's CEO, Paul Hinks, to her aides Jack Lew (then an under secretary), Jake Sullivan and Cheryl Mills. "Please check out what Joe is saying here," she said. "He is now working for a company that has a good track record building in Iraq and wants to do so in Afghanistan. Let me know. Thx."

Wilson served in Bill Clinton's administration as a special assistant and senior director for African affairs for the National Security Council. He endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2008 and appeared in an ad for her presidential campaign. Wilson and his lawyer could not be reached on Friday for comment.

Clinton's Republican detractors say her personal and political ties too often blurred with her work as secretary of state and also overlapped with activities of the Clinton Foundation.

The day after Clinton's message, Mills sent her a response from Piper Campbell, Lew's chief of staff, but it was redacted from public disclosure. Clinton asked whether Mills could talk, and Mills said she should call her before talking with the president, although it's unclear whether that conversation related to Wilson's request.

A month later, USAID said it would let companies including Symbion compete for the $266 million contract, The Associated Press reported. But in November, the agency reversed itself and awarded the no-bid contract to another company called Black & Veatch.

Despite Clinton's praise for Symbion's track record, a 2009 audit found the company had trouble finding adequate labor for its earlier work on a power plant in Kabul.

Previously disclosed emails showed other instances of Wilson pitching Symbion to Clinton. A November 2009 email, released in July, relayed by Sid Blumenthal, promoted Symbion's interest in expanding in Africa. He mentioned that the company was bidding on a project in Tanzania financed by the Millennium Challenge Corp., a grant-making nonprofit chaired by the secretary of state.

Symbion received the contract, valued at $47 million. The company said it won the job fairly, without Clinton's involvement.

In July 2011, he asked Clinton to call GE CEO Jeff Immelt to help a dispute between the company and Symbion in Tanzania.

Wilson's correspondence with Clinton is now wrapped up in a lawsuit he filed against Symbion. He filed a lawsuit against the company in September in New Mexico, claiming Symbion failed to pay him his $20,000 monthly fee for more than a year, misrepresented itself as an American company, and wasn't actually qualified to complete the power projects.

Symbion responded in a September court filing that "Wilson’s efforts to cultivate powerful figures in Washington for his own benefit have caused embarrassment to Symbion and its managers," citing the email to Blumenthal. Symbion said it paid Wilson almost $1.5 million but he never delivered any new business for the company, booked excessively expensive travel for himself, and once drank an entire bottle of wine at a lunch in the office with three young female employees.

In September 2011, Clinton emailed Joe and Valerie Wilson to say, "I'm delighted that the good work on energy in Africa continues. Happy we can be of help."

Adi Raval, senior vice president for public affairs and communications at Symbion, said in a statement to POLITICO: "Let us repeat what we have always said before: Former Secretary Clinton was not involved in the award of contracts to Symbion Power and she did not lobby for us. Reports such as this one from Politico suggesting otherwise are totally false. Furthermore, Symbion has always followed the letter of the law on our projects whether in Afghanistan, Tanzania or in any of the other countries where we have worked successfully to bring increased access to electric power to millions of people."