In other words, the appointment qualified Fernando, a trader in the public markets, for one of the highest levels of top secret access.<\/p>\n
Just as shocking was the aggressive retaliation with which the State Department tried to cover up the cronyism that literally “bought” Fernando’s seat as one of Hillary’s closest political advisors, and how – as a result of ongoing media pressure – Fernando just as mysteriously resigned only days after his appointment was announced when the State Department was unable to come up with a legitimate reason for him to stay on.<\/p>\n
The full shocking story follows, courtesy of ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n Newly released State Department emails help reveal how a major Clinton Foundation donor was placed on a sensitive government intelligence advisory board even though he had no obvious experience in the field,<\/strong> a decision that appeared to baffle the department\u2019s professional staff.<\/p>\n The emails further reveal how, after inquiries from ABC News, the Clinton staff sought to \u201cprotect the name\u201d of the Secretary, \u201cstall\u201d the ABC News reporter and ultimately accept the resignation of the donor just two days later<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Copies of dozens of internal emails were provided to ABC News by the conservative political group Citizens United, which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act after more the two years of litigation with the government.<\/p>\n A prolific fundraiser for Democratic candidates and contributor to the Clinton Foundation, who later traveled with Bill Clinton on a trip to Africa, Rajiv K. Fernando\u2019s only known qualification for a seat on the International Security Advisory Board (ISAB) was his technological know-how. The Chicago securities trader, who specialized in electronic investing, sat alongside an august collection of nuclear scientists, former cabinet secretaries and members of Congress to advise Hillary Clinton on the use of tactical nuclear weapons and on other crucial arms control issues.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had no idea who he was,\u201d one board member told ABC News.<\/p>\n Fernando\u2019s lack of any known background in nuclear security caught the attention of several board members, and when ABC News first contacted the State Department in August 2011 seeking a copy of his resume, the emails show that confusion ensued among the career government officials who work with the advisory panel.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI have spoken to [State Department official and ISAB Executive Director Richard Hartman] privately, and it appears there is much more to this story that we\u2019re unaware of,\u201d wrote Jamie Mannina, the press aide who fielded the ABC News request. \u201cWe must protect the Secretary\u2019s and Under Secretary\u2019s name, as well as the integrity of the Board. I think it\u2019s important to get down to the bottom of this before there\u2019s any response.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you can see from the attached, it\u2019s natural to ask how he got onto the board when compared to the rest of the esteemed list of members,\u201d Mannina wrote, referring to an attachment that was not included in the recent document release.<\/p>\n Fernando himself would not answer questions from ABC News in 2011 about what qualified him for a seat on the board or led to his appointment. When ABC News finally caught up with Fernando at the 2012 Democratic convention, he became upset and said he was “not at liberty” to speak about it. Security threatened to have the ABC News reporter arrested.<\/p>\n Fernando’s expertise appeared to be in the arena of high-frequency trading –<\/strong>– a form of computer-generated stock trading. At the time of his appointment, he headed a firm, Chopper Trading, that was a leader in that field.<\/strong><\/p>\n Fernando’s history of campaign giving dated back at least to 2003 and was prolific — and almost exclusively to Democrats. He was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 bid for president, giving maximum contributions to her campaign, and to HillPAC, in 2007 and 2008<\/strong>. He also served as a fundraising bundler for Clinton, gathering more than $100,000 from others for her White House bid. After Barack Obama bested Clinton for the 2008 nomination, Fernando became a major fundraiser for the Obama campaign. Prior to his State Department appointment, Fernando had given between $100,000 and $250,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation, and another $30,000 to a political advocacy group, WomenCount, that indirectly helped Hillary Clinton retire her lingering 2008 campaign debts by renting her campaign email list<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The appointment qualified Fernando for one of the highest levels of top secret access<\/strong>, the emails show. Among those with whom Fernando served on the International Security Advisory Board was David A. Kay, the former head of the Iraq Survey Group and United Nations Chief Weapons Inspector; Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, a former National Security Advisor to two presidents; two former congressmen; and former Sen. Chuck Robb. William Perry, the former Secretary of Defense, chaired the panel.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is certainly a serious, knowledgeable and experienced group of experts,\u201d said Bruce Blair, a Princeton professor whose principal research covers the technical and policy steps on the path toward the verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons. \u201cMuch of the focus has been on questions of nuclear stability and the risks of nuclear weapons use by Russia and Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n The newly released emails reveal that after ABC News started asking questions in August 2011, a State Department official who worked with the advisory board couldn\u2019t immediately come up with a justification for Fernando serving on the panel<\/strong>. His and other emails make repeated references to \u201cS\u201d; ABC News has been told this is a common way to refer to the Secretary of State.<\/p>\n \u201cThe true answer is simply that S staff (Cheryl Mills) added him,<\/strong>\u201d wrote Wade Boese, who was Chief of Staff for the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, in an email to Mannina, the press aide. \u201cRaj was not on the list sent to S; he was added at their insistence<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Mills, a former deputy White House counsel, was serving as Clinton\u2019s chief of staff at the time, and has been a longtime legal and political advisor.<\/p>\n Four minutes later, Boese wrote to his boss, Richard Hartman, to alert him that Ellen Tauscher, who was then the Undersecretary for State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, would be meeting with Mills to devise a response to the ABC News request<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry this has become a headache,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Hartman wrote the next morning to say he would \u201ccome up and brief you… about where Raj Fernando stands and the ABC News investigative journalist inquiries. You do need to hear about it.\u201d Separately, in an email to another official, Hartman noted that it was “Cheryl Mills, who added Mr. Fernando\u2019s name to the list of ISAB nominees<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n When ABC News sent a follow-up inquiry about the qualifications of another board appointee, Massachusetts state Rep. Harold P. Naughton, Jr., Boese wrote to Hartman to say the department would have a far easier time explaining Naughton\u2019s credentials. \u201cThe case for Rep. Naughton is an easy one. We are on solid ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n By this point, Fernando himself had been looped into the discussion. He and Hartman exchanged emails, but the entire text of Fernando\u2019s letter was redacted by the State Department prior to its release<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Twice, Mannina was instructed to stall with ABC News, before Mills sent a public statement. It announced Fernando\u2019s abrupt decision to step down<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Fernando chose to resign from the Board earlier this month citing additional time needed to devote to his business,\u201d <\/strong>it reads, noting that membership on the board was required to be \u201cfairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed by the advisory committee.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs President and CEO of Chopper Trading, Mr. Fernando brought a unique perspective to ISAB. He has years of experience in the private sector in implementing sophisticated risk management tools, information technology and international finance,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n The statement was emailed to ABC News two days after Fernando\u2019s resignation and four days after the initial ABC News inquiry.<\/p>\n Fernando\u2019s letter of resignation to Clinton says he \u201cintended to devote a substantial amount of time to the work of ISAB in furtherance of its objectives. However, the unique, unexpected, and excessive volatility in the international markets these last few weeks and months require[d him] to focus [his] energy on the operations of [his] company.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional emails collected from Hillary Clinton\u2019s personal server only hint at her possible involvement in Fernando\u2019s selection to the board. The records request for documents about Fernando\u2019s appointment produced a chain of correspondence from 2010 with the subject line \u201cISAB\u201d — or International Security Advisory Board. In those, Mills writes, \u201cThe secretary had two other names she wanted looked at.\u201d The names are redacted. Mills then forwarded the response to \u201cH,\u201d which is the designation for Clinton\u2019s personal account. Three minutes later Clinton forwards the email chain to another State official and says simply, \u201cPls print.\u201d<\/p>\n The Clinton campaign declined requests from ABC News to make Mills available for an interview. Campaign spokesman Nick Merrill deferred to the U.S. State Department, which issued a statement saying the board\u2019s charter specifically calls for a membership that reflects \u201ca balance of backgrounds and points of view. Furthermore, it is not unusual for the State Department Chief of Staff to be involved in personnel matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Fernando did not respond to messages left by ABC News at home and mobile numbers listed for Fernando, nor to a letter left at the office of his current business.<\/p>\n As is customary with a new administration, the make-up of the board changed substantially when Clinton took over the State Department, according to Amb. James Woolsey, who served on the panel from 2006 to 2009. But the seriousness of its mission remained the same.<\/p>\n He said the board\u2019s primary purpose was to gather an array of experts on nuclear weapons and arms control to constantly assess and update the nation\u2019s nuclear strategy.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMost things that involve nuclear weapons and nuclear strategy are dealt with at a pretty sensitive basis — top secret<\/strong>,\u201d he said, noting that participants meet in a secure facility and are restricted in what materials they can discuss.<\/p>\n That is not typically the realm of political donors<\/strong>, Woolsey said. Though, he added, it would not be impossible for someone lacking a security background to make a contribution to the panel. \u201cIt would depend on how smart and dedicated this person was… I would think you would have to devote some real time to getting up to speed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Fernando is now a board member of a private group called the American Security Project, which describes itself as \u201ca nonpartisan organization created to educate the American public and the world about the changing nature of national security in the 21st Century.\u201d He also identifies himself online as a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and says he’s involved with a Washington think tank.<\/p>\n And he continued to donate to Democrats, and to Clinton<\/strong>. He emerged as one of the first \u201cbundlers\u201d to raise money for Clinton\u2019s 2016 bid. And in July 2015, he hosted a fundraiser for Clinton at his Chicago home. Fernando has also continued to donate to the Clinton Foundation. He now is listed on the charity\u2019s website as having given between $1 million and $5 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n About six months after Fernando resigned from the State Department advisory board, he was invited to attend a White House State Dinner, honoring the British Prime Minister. And this summer Fernando will serve as a super delegate at the Democratic National Convention<\/strong>. According to Chicago media reports, he has committed to supporting Clinton.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n And that, for a mere $1-$5 million sunk cost, one can buy influence, and inside information, which – in this specific case – can then be traded and generate hundreds of millions in profits, an IRR that is too big for Excel to calculate.<\/p>\n The punchline: with thousands of generous Clinton Foundation donating “Fernandos” waiting in the wings, it is only a matter of time before President Clinton’s entire staff is comprised of people who did their math and realized that the US government is merely a means to an end: the end, of course, being to get very, very rich at the expense of the American people whom they – and Hillary –should<\/strong><\/em> be serving.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n The following emails were obtained by the conservative political group Citizens United, which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act, and were provided to ABC News. ABC News has arranged the emails in chronological order. Scroll through the emails below or CLICK HERE <\/a>to open them in a new window.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"PHOTO:](\"http:\/\/a.abcnews.com\/images\/Politics\/ht_ISAB_boardpic_lf_160609_4x3_992.jpg\")
\nA State Department photograph shows the 2011 International Security Advisory<\/em>
\nBoard. Rajiv Fernando is seated on the far left of the image<\/em><\/h5>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/user5\/imageroot\/2016\/06\/04\/abc_rajiv_emailsSM_ProtectName_lf_160608_0.jpg\")
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\nAt the 2012 Democratic Convention, ABC News’ Brian Ross asks Rajiv Fernando <\/em>
\nabout his 2011 appointment to the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board.<\/em><\/h5>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/user5\/imageroot\/2016\/06\/04\/abc_rajiv_emailsSM_TrueAnswer_lf_160608_0.jpg\")
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\nCheryl Mills, former State Department chief of staff under former Secretary of State <\/em>
\nHillary Clinton, attends a House Select Committee on Benghazi hearing in Washington, Oct. 22, 2015<\/em><\/h5>\n