Hillary Clinton has been caught in another lie.  She claimed that she was “not directly involved” in her close aide Huma Abedin gaining approval for a suspicious, conflict of interest-redolent job arrangement, but a document has just surfaced putting the lie to that claim.  Rachel Bade of Politico reports:

According to documents obtained by conservative group Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, Clinton was the immediate supervisor who approved the title change that came with the new post on March 23, 2012, permitting her then-deputy chief of staff to work several jobs at once.

“Highly unusual” does not begin to adequately describe the circumstance where the closest aide to a secretary of State simultaneously worked for a private “consulting” firm that arranged political favors and a foundation bearing the name of the secretary of State who accepted donations from foreign governments while the secretary was chief diplomatic officer of the United States.  It is so startling that the Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating, and critics are openly calling it a conflict of interest.

It was a lie when Hillary Clinton told Andrea Mitchell that she:

"... was not directly involved" with Abedin's job arrangement.

"Do you think [Donald Trump] had a point in raising the question of whether it was appropriate for her to be taking a State Department salary and also be paid by an outside company closely associated with your husband, by you?" asked reporter Andrea Mitchell.

"Well, I was not directly involved in that, but everything that she did was approved under the rules as they existed by the State Department," Clinton said.

The Clinton campaign is desperately splitting hairs, trying to evade the lie:

The Clinton Campaign argued Thursday that the document wasn't the actual approval of the SGE status but only approved the title change that came with Abedin's transition. The document states that the position was "new" and an SGE job: "The incumbent serves as a Senior Adviser, Expert-Special Government Employee."

But a signature on a document is “directly involved.”  And the attempt to blame somebody else in the State Department when the decision in question affects the person most often in the company of the SecState is such a feeble evasion that laughter is the appropriate response.

Kimberly A. Strassel describes one example of the mind-bogging conflicts of ineterst at play in the Wall Street Journal:

Huma Abedin, a longtime confidante of Mrs. Clinton’s, was somehow allowed to work, simultaneously, at the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and as a consultant to Teneo—a consulting firm run by Clinton loyalist Doug Band. All three of Ms. Abedin’s hats come into play in an undisclosed email exchange regarding a 2012 dinner in Ireland. As the Washington Examiner reported in May, Mrs. Clinton received an award at the dinner from a Clinton Foundation donor. The ceremony was promoted by Teneo. Mrs. Clinton attended in her official capacity as secretary of state. Sort through that.

Rachel Bade herself yesterday explained another example of Teneo’s work as a political influence-peddler, trying to arrange a government appointment for a client.