Hillary Clinton's emails reveal she was warned about Kevin Rudd

Latest batch of released Hillary Clinton emails has unveiled that the former Democratic presidential candidate was warned about Kevin Rudd’s (former prime minister of Australia) approach, when the latter insisted on meeting Clinton.

The emails also revealed that Clinton’s adviser Huma Abedin was shocked by Rudd’s move. She warned Clinton about his approach in December 2011 when Rudd, then Labor foreign minister, directly sought a bilateral meeting through her office.

The exchange of emails took place 18 months after Rudd was deposed as the Prime Minister of Australia by Julia Gillard. Other diplomats including Jeffery Bleich (then US ambassador to Australia) and Kurt Campbell (then assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs) were also shocked by Rudd’s move, which broke the protocol as he skirted the top US officials and tried to directly reach the then secretary of state.

Clinton’s staff rejected Rudd’s request and asked for more time to figure out the situation. However, Clinton and Rudd were supposed to meet and attend an international conference on Afghanistan in Germany and so Abedin warned Clinton about Rudd.

“If Rudd tries to grab you, want to remind you he emailed me for a bilat,” Abedin wrote in the released email. “I told you I was working on it. Needless to say, Kurt's staff and Jeff Bleich are surprised he went around them to get to you directly without co-ordination on message/policy etc.”

This is not the first time that Rudd has been included in the released emails of Hillary Clinton. The emails released in October 2016 had revealed that Rudd wanted to arrange a meeting with Clinton, and hence, he contacted her presidential campaign chairman John Podesta. “I would appreciate a short chat before Christmas,” he had written in the mail, which was replied to with, “K.”

In another mail to Bleich in June 2010, Rudd had also requested to hear from Clinton, despite the fact that he had already talked to President Obama. According to Bleinch, Rudd wanted sympathy from Clinton as well, after losing the prime minister’s chair.

The emails have been released by the US government after Hillary Clinton was accused of using a personal email account for official government business while she was the secretary of the state. She was accused of violating federal regulations that require the government to keep track of all correspondences.