A top aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went in the same email from lamenting the Benghazi terrorist attack just days after the assault to discussing font preferences for her private company’s logo, according to newly-disclosed documents.
Cheryl Mills, Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department, received an email from an advertising firm at 4:31 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2012, two days after the assault on the U.S. diplomatic compound. In that email, firm co-founder Judy Trabulsi wrote of how her “heart breaks” for former Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, his family, and everyone who worked for him.
Stevens was one of four Americans killed in the attack.
Ms. Trabulsi then wrote she was going to give Ms. Mills printouts of the new logos for the company, cdmillGroup, the next day but that she thought Ms. Mills would like to look at them over the weekend.
“Sending a ’heart hug’ to you. Much love — Judy,” reads the email, obtained though a lawsuit by the watchdog group Judicial Watch.
At 11:32 p.m., Ms. Mills responded: “The bough bent and nearly broke this week — Chris [Stevens] was truly one of our best — HRC had picked him especially to go b/c of who he was and what he represented. And Sean [Smith] was a rising star. Tomorrow we will welcome their remains home wondering how this would be possible. Thank you for your kind words. And thanks for these — I really like them.
“I think my preference is the one that is sans serif font. I will scan some comments on them this weekend — I think it’s exactly what I would want so would have only a few tweaks. Thank you so very much. xo cdm.”
The emails were released under a court order as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch.
“These new Benghazi emails are almost obscene,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “That Hillary Clinton aide and confidante Cheryl Mills was focused on the font for the logo of her new company — as our Benghazi facility was still smoldering — is unconscionable.”
Under a separate court order, the State Department is in the process of releasing on a rolling basis Mrs. Clinton’s own emails from her time at the agency.
The Democratic presidential front-runner has been dogged on the campaign trail by revelations last year that she set up a private email system and server to use exclusively as the nation’s top diplomat, rather than rely on a standard government account.
That choice ensured that open-records and congressional oversight requests for her correspondence were incomplete.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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