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WIKI——Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, raised questions about Abedin’s work as a State Department employee, concerning the fact that she held four jobs[28] from June 2012 to February 2013.[18][29][30][31]

These included
<><> serving as a part-time aide to Clinton at the State Department,
<><> working as a consultant to private clients for the consulting firm Teneo Holdings,[29][30] a consulting firm run by Douglas Band, a longtime aide to former president Bill Clinton.[32]
<><>she was also being paid a salary for work at the Clinton Foundation,
<><> and she was working as Hillary Clinton’s personal assistant.[28]

The State Department and Abedin both responded, with the State Department indicating that it uses special government employees routinely “to provide services and expertise that executive agencies require”, and Abedin stating that she did not provide any government information or inside information gained from her State Department job to her private employers. Grassley said he found the letters unresponsive.

In October 2015, a federal court in Washington, D.C. heard arguments on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by conservative watchdog organization Judicial Watch for records related to Abedin. Judicial Watch asked to make Abedin’s emails and employment records public, requesting details of the arrangement under which she was designated a “special government employee”, allowing her to also perform outside consulting work while on the federal payroll.[34][35]

On October 6, the State Department said it would be able to hand over 69 pages of emails in response to the FOIA request.[36]

In 2015, emails by Abedin became part of the FBI investigation and the controversy concerning Hillary Clinton’s private email account while Secretary of State,[37][38] resulting in various allegations by Republicans of violations of State Department regulations.[39] Some officials within the intelligence community have stated that potentially classified information was contained in e-mails from Abedin relating to the 2012 Benghazi attack and its aftermath, which had been sent through Clinton’s private, non-government server.[37][40][41]

As of February 2016, 1,818 emails were found containing classified information on the private server; 22 of those were classified as Top Secret. They were not marked classified at the time they were sent, but they did contain classified information when they were originally sent and received. Clinton’s aides also sent and received classified information.[42]