A Peek Into Clintonland

The New Republic takes a fascinating look at the role Doug Band played in Bill Clinton’s post-presidential inner circle.

“A longtime Clinton associate was approached by a company interested in having the former president speak at a conference and asked Band for guidance… Band explained that the company should pay a certain sum to Clinton’s speaker’s agency and ideally contribute a certain sum to the Clinton Global Initiative or the foundation. Of course, he told the associate, the company should ‘also pay you for having made that happen’ — as if that were simply the way things were done.”

“Band had a key ally on Hillary’s team: Huma Abedin. Bill’s body man and Hillary’s body woman had bonded over their loyalty to their bosses. They were known to show up at parties together… They also had an ingenious method of collecting intelligence on each other’s behalf. Abedin would sidle up to someone in Bill’s camp and, in a confiding tone, make a disparaging remark about Band. If it was reciprocated, she would relay the criticisms to Band and he would do the same for her, says someone who fell for this technique.”