Doug Band, a co-founder of the Clinton Global Initiative and a top Clinton insider, accused Chelsea Clinton of backstabbing – specifically, of giving “a kiss on the cheek while she is sticking a knife in the back, and front” – in a January 2012 email sent to top Hillary Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, and top aide, Cheryl Mills. “As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far,” Band added.
The email was triggered by a friendly note from Chelsea Clinton sent to Doug Band and senior Clinton advisor Justin Cooper.
Hi Doug and Justin – Just met Clark Winter on our BA flight and he had terrific things to say about Dad and you Doug and CGI generally and it was nice to hear as ever so I wanted to pass along. Sorry for brevity. We’re taking off. Hope alls well in Davos Justin.
Chelsea
Clark Winter is likely a reference to investment management consultant Clark Winter, whose biography list him as “an internationally known investor and commentator on geopolitics and global financial markets.”
Doug Band’s comment on Chelsea Clinton’s email to Podesta and Mills was blunt:
She sends me one of these types of emails every few days/week
As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far
A kiss on the cheek while she is sticking a knife in the back, and front
Who is Doug Band?
Many could argue there are few people in the world who would have a better personal insight into Bill and Hillary Clinton than Doug Band.
Longtime Clinton advisor Doug Band is at the center of their world and his comment seems to indicate that he considers either Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton or both to be disingenuous backstabbers as well. The assessment is shocking coming from someone so close to the Clintons.
As his official biography says on the website for his company Teneo Holdings:
Douglas J. Band is a co-founder and President of Teneo.
Mr. Band began working in the White House in 1995, serving in the White House Counsel’s office for four years and later in the Oval Office as the President’s Aide. In 1999, he was appointed by President Clinton as a Special Assistant to the President before he was made one of the youngest Deputy Assistants ever to serve a President.
Mr. Band served as President Clinton’s chief advisor from 2002 until 2012, advising him as the Counselor to the President, and was the key architect of Clinton’s post-Presidency. He created and built the Clinton Global Initiative, which to date, has raised $69 billion for 2,100 philanthropic initiatives around the world and impacted over 400 million people in 180 countries. On March 1, 2012, President Clinton said of Doug: “I couldn’t have achieved half of what I have in my post-presidency without Doug Band. Doug is my Counselor and a board member of the Clinton Global Initiative, which was created at his suggestion.”
While that is Doug Band’s description from his own company, a 2013 article in the New Republic entitled Scandal at Clinton Inc. gives more insight into the relationship between Doug Band and the Clintons.
He is rarely written about, almost never quoted, and many Clinton associates are loath to discuss him on the record. “Doug is taboo—no one touches the guy,” says one person who has had extensive dealings with him. On the handful of occasions he has spoken openly to the media, he has struck an impeccably humble tone. “The thing I most enjoy in my job is helping people,” he once told his college alumni magazine. “I have been able to remain behind the scenes, making a difference and changing people’s lives.” But as Band attempts to build a business of his own, the methods he once employed discreetly in the service of his boss have started to attract unwelcome attention.
Band himself did not respond to an extensive list of questions for this article, but over the course of nine months, I spoke with more than three dozen people who have worked with him over the arc of his career. Inside the realm known as Clintonland, he is the subject of considerable angst. There are those who worry about the overlap between his work for the Clinton Global Initiative— which he conceived and helped run for six years—and his energetic efforts to expand Teneo’s client base. And there are those who worry about how some of the messier aspects of the charity’s operations could create trouble for Hillary Clinton, who has made the family foundation her base as she contemplates a presidential run. But the real cause for these anxieties runs deeper. At its heart, the unease with Band reflects an unease with the phenomenon of post-presidential Clintonism itself.
Band’s company Teneo Holding also has come under scrutiny for hiring Hillary Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin under an employment arrangement that can best be described as unique.
As Politico reported:
A spring 2012 email to Hillary Clinton’s top State Department aide, Huma Abedin, asked for help winning a presidential appointment for a supporter of the Clinton Foundation, according to a chain obtained by POLITICO.
The messages illustrate the relationship between Clinton’s most trusted confidante and the private consulting company that asked for the favor, Teneo — a global firm that later hired Abedin. Abedin signed on with the company while she still held a State Department position, a dual employment that is now being examined by congressional investigators.
Abedin’s status as a “special government employee” has been questioned by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has raised concerns about any overlapping duties and whether they posed potential conflicts of interest. Abedin also worked as an adviser to the Clinton Foundation, the nonprofit founded by former President Bill Clinton.
Following on the revelations in Peter Schweitzer’s book and film Clinton Cash about the tight connection between the Clinton Global initiative and Hillary Clinton’s career as Secretary of State, the WikiLeaks drops have provided new information on just how tight those connections really are.
As Breitbart News reported, other revelations from Hillary Clinton’s emails show that:
Doug Band was emailing Clinton aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills to set up meetings for big donors, such as Gilbert Chagoury – a close friend of Bill Clinton’s who has poured up to $6 million into slush funds like the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative. The New York Post notes he was fined $66 million by Switzerland in a 2000 money-laundering case.
Another email forwarded to Abedin and Mills by Band explicitly asked for a “favor,” and Band told the Clinton team it was “important to take care” of the redacted individual, because “we all have had him on our radar.” Judicial Watch says Band was trying to help Mr. or Ms. Redacted get a job.
A request by Breitbart News to Mr. Band for comment at the email address listed returned as bounced.
