On the campaign trail Hillary Clinton has been critical of for-profit colleges and has called for tougher regulation of the sector.

During her first year as secretary of state, however, Clinton pushed for the inclusion of a large for-profit education company at a higher education policy dinner hosted at the U.S. Department of State.

Clinton wrote in an email to a top aide that she wanted to add Laureate Education to the guest list for the event. Describing Laureate as “the fastest growing college network in the world,” Clinton said the company was “started by Doug Becker who Bill likes a lot.”

"It's a for-profit model that should be represented," she added in the August 2009 email. A senior vice president at Laureate was added to the guest list, a separate email shows.

Former President Bill Clinton several months later became an honorary chancellor for Laureate International Universities, a role for which he was paid $16.5 million between 2010 and 2014. Clinton stepped down from the position earlier this year.

Other attendees at the closed-door event, according to a list emailed to Hillary Clinton, included the leaders of Yale University, Cornell University, New York University, the University of California at Davis, Bryn Mawr College, Berea College and Houston Community College.

The two emails were released by the State Department last month as part of its court-ordered rolling production of messages from the personal email account Clinton used while secretary of state.