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Hillary Clinton emails reveal US reaction to Iris Robinson affair

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with First Minister Peter Robinson
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with First Minister Peter Robinson Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with First Minister Peter Robinson

HILLARY Clinton was warned the scandal surrounding Iris Robinson's affair with a teenager could ruin the north's peace process, declassified emails reveal.

US officials said the controversy five years ago had thrown the DUP into a "twilight zone of disorientation".

US advisers also warned that any resignation by DUP leader Peter Robinson would lead to a "catastrophic defeat" for the party in a snap election.

"There's more to come, hour by hour, but the situation remains extremely murky," officials wrote to then US secretary of state Ms Clinton.

The comments in 2010 are contained in the latest tranche of Ms Clinton's emails, released under US freedom of information laws.

Thousands of the presidential candidate's emails have been released after it emerged that she used a private server for government business when she was secretary of state.

Stormont was rocked in January 2010 when a BBC Spotlight programme revealed Iris Robinson's financial and personal relationship with 19-year-old businessman Kirk McCambley.

It revealed Ms Robinson, the first minister's wife, obtained £50,000 from two property developers to help Mr McCambley secure a tender for a south Belfast café, the Lock Keeper's Inn.

One of the property developers had agreed to provide money on condition that Mr McCambley gave £5,000 from the payment to Ms Robinson to use for charitable purposes.

The first minister temporarily delegated his responsibilities to colleague Arlene Foster following the controversy, and his wife stood down as an MP, MLA and Castlereagh councillor.

A Stormont report released in November – almost five years after the Spotlight programme – found that Iris Robinson committed a "serious breach" of the assembly's code of conduct.

It confirmed Ms Robinson broke assembly rules by failing to register three payments, including two from property developers to help her teenage lover.

The investigation found that First Minister Peter Robinson did not breach the code.

A confidential email briefing to Hillary Clinton reveals how the US reacted to the scandal.

Officials claimed Mr Robinson privately assured then Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward that no financial irregularity was involved.

It reads: "The political crisis in Northern Ireland is fast moving and fluid. On Friday, January 7, after reading a lengthy statement on TV denouncing his wife repeatedly for her affair (with a teenager), Peter Robinson assured Shaun Woodward privately that no financial irregularity was involved.

"Then, within hours, it was reported that Iris Robinson secured £50,000 from government contractors to give to her lover to set up a restaurant. Peter Robinson in fact knew of the money all along."

The confidential briefing adds: "Shaun sent signals to leaders of the DUP that Robinson's resignation would provoke a series of events leading rapidly to Shaun calling an election in which they would be tainted by him and suffer a catastrophic defeat, followed by the general UK election that would compound their misery.

"Robinson's six-week hiatus puts the DUP in a fugue state, a twilight zone of disorientation, that cannot be sustained.

"Shaun is also working through the Irish government to communicate to Adams not to provoke a full-blown crisis, ruining peace prospects in order to advance the dream of a united Ireland."

More than a quarter of Ms Clinton's work emails have now been released, after she provided the US State Department with 30,000 pages of documents last year.

Polls indicate that the email scandal has affected Ms Clinton's ratings, though she remains the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential election.