Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff Had ‘Come to [Jesus]’ with Colleagues Prior to Benghazi Testimony

One of the emails released by the State Department on Friday shows Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills describing a confrontation with unnamed “colleagues” as State Department officials were giving classified congressional testimony about Benghazi.

On November 13, 2012, Hillary sent Mills and Senior Advisor Philippe Reines an email consisting of just the subject line, “How are the hearings going?” The hearings in question were classified congressional hearings on Benghazi at which Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy was set to testify.

One minute after receiving Hillary’s email, Mills replied, “Just starting–had to have a little come to with some of our colleagues but folks now on board.” The “come to” is apparently short for a come-to-Jesus-moment, i.e. a moment in which someone is warned or encouraged to toe the line.

It’s not clear which colleagues Mills had in mind. She could have been referring to someone scheduled to speak before Congress or she might have been referring to congressional Democrats who were participating in the hearings. In either case, the result of the confrontation was that folks were “now on board.” It’s not clear what they were on board with or why they needed to be warned.

Mills ends the brief email by saying, “PIR is up there with them.” This is a reference to Philippe I. Reines, the other adviser to whom Hillary had directed her query. Reines was apparently on Capitol Hill where the classified hearings were taking place.