Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton aide, was overpaid for time off, State Dept. probe finds

State Department investigators revealed that Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, was overpaid roughly $10,000 during her time at the department.

Investigators found that Ms. Abedin, who now serves as Mrs. Clinton’s vice chairwoman of her presidential campaign, was overpaid because she did not request leave when taking time away from the job, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The findings were revealed Friday when Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent letters to Secretary of State John Kerry and the State Department’s Inspector General requesting details of Ms. Abedin’s work and how she was paid.

He also asked about an ongoing inquiry into whether Ms. Abedin had violated conflict-of-interest laws related to her special employment situation, which allowed her to work simultaneously for the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and a private firm with close ties to the Clinton family, The Post reported.

The improper payments came after Ms. Abedin was paid roughly $30,000 for unused leave as part of her compensation at the State Department. She never requested any vacation or sick leave during her three and half years as a government employee and was paid for that unspent time, The Post reported.

But in his letters, Mr. Grassley said his committee had “received allegations” that Ms. Abedin had actually taken leave several times but never formally requested time off.

He added that efforts to investigate Ms. Abedin’s actions may have been thwarted because many of her exchanges were sent through Mrs. Clinton’s private email server, The Post said.

Mr. Grassley wrote that his committee had reviewed emails in which Ms. Abedin stated she was “on leave” and she allegedly took a 10-day trip to France and Italy with her husband without using any formal leave time.

Ms. Abedin’s attorney told The Post that she was formally contesting the findings, arguing that she did extensive work while on the trip abroad and while on maternity leave.

The Clinton Campaign declined to comment.

“Huma Abedin is widely known as one of the hardest-working people in all of Washington during the nearly two decades she was in public service,” Ms. Abedin’s attorney Karen Dunn told The Post. “The IG report found a multitude of instances when she was working even when she was on maternity leave, yet its central charge was that she owes back pay for work missed while on leave. It simply doesn’t add up.”