Hillary Clinton is deeply troubled by the email scandal engulfing her campaign and her team, according to her longtime confidant, Huma Abedin.
Abedin, who was Clinton’s deputy chief of staff for several months before she was fired last week, told ABC News that the former secretary of state “absolutely” suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The former first lady is the focus of multiple investigations into her handling of the email controversy, as well as the FBI probe into her personal email server.
The investigation is focusing on whether Clinton mishandled classified information and whether her use of a private email server for official business was an honest mistake.
The emails have been widely scrutinized by congressional committees.
Clinton and her top advisers are under pressure to produce more documents that could shed light on whether she broke the law.
And she is now under pressure from a group of former staffers and confidants to release more information.
But Abedin, who is known to be the Clinton’s closest confidant and the most vocal defender of her, told the ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos she is not “interested in going into detail about the issue.”
Instead, she said she would be happy to talk about other topics, like the “great things that can be done” in Washington.
A look at some of Clinton’s emailsThe emails released so far show that Clinton was worried about the damage she was doing to her campaign by allowing her aides to use private email for official work, and that her aides were working to conceal the fact that she used a private server.
In one of the emails, Clinton’s chief of speechwriting Jennifer Palmieri asked Clinton’s top advisers to contact the “people in the White House to see if we could have something done.”
Palmieri said she was concerned about a letter that Palmieri had sent to the White Houses press secretary that said, “We’re in a panic about the email issue.”
The letter was written by an aide who was also in the inner circle, including Huma Abedin, to the chief of communications, Dan Pfeiffer.
In the letter, Palmieri expressed concern about the impact of the investigation and said, I’m worried that the email situation could put our White House at a major disadvantage in the election.
Palmiers letter also said, We are in a state of panic about email.
I can’t speak for the WhiteHouse, but it seems like the email is going to be a big issue in the general election.
It could be really bad for HRC and for the Democrats.
When asked about the emails during an appearance at the American College of Podiatric Dentistry’s annual conference on Monday, Clinton declined to say whether she had sent her own emails.
She instead called the emails a “matter” that needs to be handled in the public interest.
“I do believe it’s a matter that needs more information and that it needs to continue to be looked at, but I’m not going to discuss it, because it’s not a matter,” Clinton said.
“So, I can speak for myself.
I’ve got nothing to hide.”
When asked if she had used a personal email account during her tenure as secretary of State, Clinton told Stephanopoulos, “I do.”
“But there are so many people that I know that were using it, and I have been asking people to step forward and to provide information that would be useful in order to find out what was going on,” Clinton added.
The emails are just the latest revelation in a week that has seen the former first family become the target of the highest-profile and most partisan congressional investigation in history.
Clinton has been dogged by questions over her handling the investigation, including the role of former FBI Director James Comey in her decision to send classified information to a private account during the transition.
Clinton’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, has accused the FBI of bias and obstruction of justice.