Huma Mahmood Abedin (Urdu: ہما عابدین; born July 28, 1975) is an American political staffer who was vice chair of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign for President of the United States.

Her high-profile political career has caused her personal life to come under public scrutiny over the years, particularly her marriage to former congressman Anthony Weiner.

[8] As a teenager, she aspired to be a journalist like her role model Christiane Amanpour and wanted to work in the White House press office.

[13][14] While a student at George Washington University, Abedin began working as an intern in the White House in 1996, assigned to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.

[18] Eleven days before leaving the State Department, Abedin set up a private consulting firm, Zain Endeavors LLC.

[20] The book covers her childhood in Saudi Arabia, her Muslim faith, her time as an aide to Clinton and her relationship with her estranged husband, former Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner.

[22] In the memoir, Abedin also explores the multiple identities that have shaped her, in particular being born in Michigan and then raised in Saudi Arabia by a Pakistani father and an Indian mother.

[25] Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, raised questions about Abedin's work as a State Department employee, concerning the fact that she held four jobs[26] from June 2012 to February 2013.

[29] In July 2015, Grassley released information indicating that the State Department's inspector general had found that Abedin was overpaid by almost $10,000 for unused leave time when she left the government, resulting from violations of the rules governing vacation and sick leave during her tenure on the payroll as a Federal employee in the department.

[30][31] Abedin's attorneys said that she had learned in May that the Department's inspector general had found that she improperly collected $9,857 for periods when she was on vacation or leave, responded with a 12-page letter contesting the findings, and formally requested an administrative review of the investigation's conclusions.

[30] Her lawyer, Miguel Rodriguez, told The New York Times that the inspector general's report showed that Abedin worked during her maternity leave and had thus earned the pay.

[32] In October 2015, a federal court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by conservative watchdog organization Judicial Watch for records related to Abedin.

Judicial Watch asked to make Abedin's emails and employment records public, requesting details of the arrangement under which she was designated a "special government employee", allowing her to also perform outside consulting work while on the federal payroll.

[37] Some officials within the intelligence community have stated that classified information was contained in e-mails from Abedin relating to the 2012 Benghazi attack and its aftermath, which had been sent through Clinton's private, non-government server.

[42] The Republican-led committee's top Democratic representative, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, questioned the panel's decision to hear testimony from Abedin, arguing that her knowledge of details at the time of the attacks was minimal.

"[41] Five Republican members of Congress (Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Trent Franks of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Thomas J. Rooney of Florida, and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia) sent a letter dated June 13, 2012, to the State Department Inspector General.

[43] The letter was also criticized by, among others, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, the first Muslim member of Congress, who called the allegations "reprehensible".

According to the report, the subpoena focused on documents about the charity's projects that may have required approval from the federal government during Clinton's term as secretary of state; it also asked for records related to Abedin.

They then stopped their work and contacted the team of investigators from FBI headquarters who had handled the probe of Clinton's private email server.

[66] Abedin and Weiner withdrew their divorce case in January 2018, stating that they decided to settle privately in order to spare their son further embarrassment.