EXCLUSIVE: 'Don't you know who I am?' How Hillary's 'arrogant' aide Huma Abedin - now in the crosshairs of Servergate - tried to force her way past Secret Service agents without ID and expected them to carry her luggage
- Secret Service agents: Behind the scenes Hillary Clinton - self-proclaimed middle class champion - is nasty and abusive toward her own detail
- Her right hand woman Huma Abedin is no different, they tell RONALD KESSLER
- Agents say Abedin treated them like second-class citizens
- 'She'd have four bags, and we'd stand there and watch her and say, 'Oh, can we hold the door open for you?''
- 'There's not an agent in the service who wants to be on Hillary's detail'
- If agents get the nod to go to her detail, it's considered a form of punishment
Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets of the FBI and The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents, now in paperback.
When it comes to arrogance, Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's longtime top aide, and her presidential candidate boss are two peas in a pod, according to Secret Service agents.
For that reason, it's not surprising that the FBI investigation of Hillary's use of classified emails reportedly got a jump start after uncovering highly classified emails sent by Abedin and another Clinton aide.
Yesterday, it was revealed that State Department BlackBerry devices issued to the former Secretary of State's aides Cheryl Mills and Abedin, 39, have likely been destroyed or sold off, the department said in a court filing.
At your service: Hillary and Huma Abedin leave posh department store Bergdorf Goodman in New York city surrounded by Secret Service agents. 'There's not an agent in the service who wants to be in Hillary's detail,' a current agent, not in this photo, says. 'If agents get the nod to go to her detail, that's considered a form of punishment
Based on the research and interviews for my book The Secrets of the FBI, I can say that the FBI would not have opened such a high profile investigation unless it already believed Hillary had violated criminal laws governing handling and dissemination of classified material.
Nor, as some media reports have claimed, is the investigation a 'security investigation' into handling of the emails. The FBI does nothing unless it is pursuing violations of criminal laws and targeting individuals.
And the pertinent laws make no distinction between classified material that is marked as such or not. If material is classified and is handled improperly, that is a violation of criminal laws.
While Hillary Clinton claims she will be the champion of the little people if elected, the truth is that behind the scenes she is so nasty and abusive toward her own Secret Service detail and treats them with such contempt that being assigned to Hillary's detail is considered a form of punishment within the Security Service.
According to Secret Service agents interviewed for my book The First Family Detail, Abedin can be just as rude and nasty as Hillary. A former agent recalls helping Abedin when she got lost driving Chelsea to the February 2008 Democrat presidential debate in Los Angeles.
Closer than close: It's not surprising, says Kessler, that the FBI investigation of Hillary's use of classified emails reportedly got a jump start after uncovering highly classified emails sent by Abedin
'She was belligerent and angry about being late for the event,' the former agent says. 'No appreciation for any of it, not a thank-you or anything. That was common for her people to be rude.'
At another event in Los Angeles, a female agent challenged Abedin because she was not wearing a pin that identifies cleared aides to Secret Service agents. The agent had no idea who she was.
'You don't have the proper identification to go beyond this point,' the agent told her.
'Huma basically tried to throw her weight around,' a former agent says. 'She tried to just force her way through and said belligerently, 'Do you know who I am?''
That got her nowhere. Eventually, Abedin - who is married to disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner - cooperated with the agent and suggested a contact who could verify her identity.
Ladies who lunch: Hillary Clinton (center) and Huma Abedin (behind her) were spotted – only by a security camera – lunching on Monday at Chipotle in Maumee, Ohio
'Huma Abedin looked down on the agents and treated them as second-class citizens,' a former agent says. While agents are not supposed to carry luggage, they will do so as a courtesy if they like a female protectee, such as Lynne Cheney or Rosalynn Carter.
Investigative reporter Ronald Kessler is the author of The First Family Detail, now in paperback
But with Abedin, 'the agents were just like, 'Hey, you're going to be like that? Well, you get your own luggage to the car. Oh, and by the way, you can carry the first lady's luggage to the car, too.'
'She'd have four bags, and we'd stand there and watch her and say, 'Oh, can we hold the door open for you?'
'On TV, they will make it sound like they just really appreciated and loved those Secret Service agents and appreciate all their sacrifices and all that,' a former agent says of the Clintons. 'Then behind the scenes, they're like, 'I don't want to see these guys.'
He adds: 'When it's convenient for them, they'll utilize the service for whatever favor they need, but otherwise, they look down upon the agents, kind of like servants.'
'There's not an agent in the service who wants to be in Hillary's detail,' a current agent says. 'If agents get the nod to go to her detail, that's considered a form of punishment among the agents. She's hard to work around, she's known to snap at agents and yell at agents and dress them down to their faces, and they just have to be humble and say, 'Yes ma'am,' and walk away.'
The agent adds, 'Agents don't deserve that. They're there to do a job, they're there to protect her, they'll lay their life down for hers, and there's absolutely no respect for that. And that's why agents do not want to go to her detail.'
Agents say Hillary's nastiness and contempt for them and disdain for law enforcement and the military in general continued, both when she was secretary of state and now that she is protected as a former first lady, earning her the distinction of being considered the Secret Service's most detested protectee.
Hillary had a 'standing rule that no one spoke to her when she was going from one location to another,' says former FBI agent Coy Copeland. 'In fact, anyone who would see her coming would just step into the first available office.'
During the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a Secret Service uniformed officer was standing post on the South Lawn when Hillary arrived by limo.
'The first lady steps out of the limo, and another uniformed officer says to her, 'Good morning, ma'am,'' a former uniformed officer recalls. 'Her response to him was 'F—- off.' I couldn't believe I heard it.'
One afternoon, Hillary found a White House electrician changing a light bulb in the residence. She yelled at him because she had ordered that all repair work was to be done while the first family was out.
'She caught the guy on a ladder doing the lightbulb,' says Franette McCulloch, who was then the assistant White House pastry chef. 'He was a basket case.''We were basically told, the Clintons don't want to see you, they don't want to hear you, get out of the way,' says a former Secret Service agent. 'If Hillary was walking down a hall, you were supposed to hide behind drapes used as partitions. Supervisors would tell us, 'Listen, stand behind this curtain. They're coming,' or 'Just stand out of the way, don't be seen.''
Hillary had a 'standing rule that no one spoke to her when she was going from one location to another,' says former FBI agent Coy Copeland. 'In fact, anyone who would see her coming would just step into the first available office.'
An agent working with Copeland for independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's investigation of the Clintons' investments in the Whitewater real estate development did not know the rules: He made the mistake of addressing Hillary, saying 'Good morning, Mrs. Clinton' as she passed him in a corridor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
'Huma looked down on the agents and treated them as second-class citizens,' a former agent says. While agents are not supposed to carry luggage, they will do so as a courtesy if they like a female protectee, such as Lynne Cheney or Rosalynn Carter
'She jumped all over him,' Copeland says. 'How dare you? You people are just destroying my husband.' It was that vast right-wing conspiracy rant. Then she had to tack on something to the effect of 'And where do you buy your suits? Penney's?''
For weeks, the agent told no one about the encounter. 'Finally, he told me about it,' Copeland says. 'And he said, 'I was wearing the best suit I owned.''
At the 2000 Democratic National Convention at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Secret Service agents were told that the Clintons had issued instructions that agents leave their posts and, as if they were criminals, step around corners to hide as the Clintons approached.
'We were told they didn't want to see us,' an agent on the detail says.
'Hillary would cuss at Secret Service drivers for going over bumps,' former agent Jeff Crane says.
'There's not an agent in the service who wants to be in Hillary's detail,' a current agent says. 'If agents get the nod to go to her detail, that's considered a form of punishment among the agents. She's hard to work around, she's known to snap at agents and yell at agents and dress them down to their faces, and they just have to be humble and say, 'Yes ma'am,' and walk away.'
The agent adds, 'Agents don't deserve that. They're there to do a job, they're there to protect her, they'll lay their life down for hers, and there's absolutely no respect for that. And that's why agents do not want to go to her detail.'
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