Hillary Clinton was tight-lipped when The Post caught up to her Tuesday amid new allegations that her campaign paid for computer research to tie rival Donald Trump to Russia — and just two days before a major speech that could launch her on a renewed quest for the White House.
Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton spent about three hours inside a Queens restaurant that was closed to the public so they could be recorded on video for an unspecified project.
“There was a film crew,” a worker at Kusina Pinoy Bistro in Woodside told The Post after the two left.
“There was an area that was exclusive for them, a back room.”
The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and her and ex-President Bill Clinton’s daughter were served four traditional Filipino dishes, including bamboo-shoot spring rolls, crispy pork with peanut sauce and sizzling chopped-tofu and chopped-pork dishes, the worker said.
Clinton waved to onlookers but ignored questions from The Post when she emerged from the eatery wearing a royal blue coat over a black pantsuit around 3:30 p.m.
Earlier, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vowed to investigate the latest revelations from Special Counsel John Durham’s “Russiagate” probe if Republicans win back control of the chamber in the November elections.
On Friday, Durham filed court papers in which he alleged that a Clinton campaign lawyer enlisted a tech executive to help “mine” Internet data from locations including Trump Tower and the White House “to establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia.”
In the wake of the bombshell filing, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe revealed that he’d seen information about a Clinton campaign “plan to vilify Donald Trump [and] to falsely accuse him of ties to Russia,” and that officials including then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden were briefed on the matter.
Clinton, 74, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address Thursday at the state Democratic Committee’s Nominating Convention at the Sheraton New York Times Square hotel.
The speech will come about a month after Democratic pollster Doug Schoen and former Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that she was “already in an advantageous position to become the 2024 Democratic nominee.”
Last week, a source told CNBC, which was first to report on Clinton’s address, that she was “beloved by the mainstream members of the Democratic Party” and that “her popularity is likely higher than that of President Biden.”
But some New York Democrats told The Post that they disagreed with party Chairman Jay Jacobs’ decision to give Clinton the platform amid speculation she could run for president again.
“I do not think a resurrection of Hillary Clinton’s political ambitions is appropriate, nor do I think she’s helpful to the long-term future of the New York Democratic Party,” Assemblyman Phil Steck (D-Colonie) said.
“I think we need to show people we care more about Main Street than Wall Street and Hillary Clinton does not do that for the Democratic Party.”
Committee member Patrick Nelson, who represents a district around upstate Saratoga Springs, also said, “I wish the Democratic Party leadership would have chosen someone for keynote speaker who was more forward-looking and unifying.
“We have the youngest woman elected to Congress from New York — AOC,” Nelson said, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of The Bronx and Queens.
“Hillary Clinton has been quite divisive.”
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