Hillary Clinton's Mysterious Secret 'Santa' May Be Revealed

ByLIZ KREUTZ ABCNews logo
Friday, July 3, 2015

Was it really Christmas in July for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, or did it just seem that way because she happened to need a haircut?

That's the question in the air as one of the biggest mysteries from the Clinton emails may be close to being solved.

Two emails released by the State Department earlier this week revealed that Clinton had meetings with an unidentified person referred to as "Santa."

In July 2009, Clinton wrote in an email to her aide, Huma Abedin, "I'm seeing Santa at 8:30 so won't take off until closer to 9:30. Is that ok?" And she wrote another email in September 2009: "The timing, however, is hard for a visit since I need to see Santa around 7:45 after seeing Lisa."

The emails raised eyebrows. The New York Post wrote about Clinton's "mysterious Christmas in July."

But the "Santa" in the emails may have nothing to do with the holiday and may not be a code name for some high-powered Clinton associate.

Santa actually may be Clinton's longtime hairdresser, Santa Nikkels.

Nikkels owns a small salon in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons live. In fact, former President Bill Clinton was spotted regaling customers in the shop last weekend, and People magazine interviewed Nikkels just before Clinton announced her campaign in April.

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the identity of her still-secret Santa.

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