Wikileaks dump: John Podesta email dump

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Reines blows up at Podesta over leak accusation

Philippe Reines, a longtime Clinton confidante who has tapped to play Donald Trump in debate prep, blew up at Podesta in a hacked email over implications that Reines was leaking information to the press.

“You got to stop this,” Podesta emails to Reines, while cc’ing Cherryl Mills. “If we are going to be at each others [sic] throats before we start, we are going nowhere.”

Reines shoots back, saying in an email that “with all due respect, and reluctantly to do this in front of HRC except for wanting to defend myself against being labeled as a cancer - but the conclusion that it is ME that has to stop ‘this’ is really unfair.”

“Again, with all due respect, your reaction to me is unfair in that's [sic] it's stronger than any admonition anyone else has received who is actually doing something wrong,” he continues. “With that, I'm going to sit queitly [sic] in the corner until Cheryl calls me to admonish me for sending this reply and digging myself into an even deeper hole with you than I already was.”


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Clinton was ‘obsessed’ with Jeb Bush

A Hillary Clinton ally rated Jeb Bush’s August debate performance as a fail, and discussed how the Democratic presidential nominee was “obsessed” with both Bush and Donald Trump.

In an email exchange released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday, the third of a series of hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s account, Neera Tanden, a public policy advisor, criticized Bush’s performance in the first Republican primary debate, which took place in Cleveland, Ohio, in August 2015.

“Bush sucked. I'm glad Hillary is obsessed with the one candidate who would be easiest to beat ,” Tanden wrote in response to Podesta, who asked if she watched the debate with her kids.

The email exchange also suggests that Tanden underestimated Trump’s success in the primaries.

“Besides Trump, of course,” she ended.


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Aides go into damage control over Clinton’s comments on bankruptcy bill


Aides to Hillary Clinton quickly moved into damage control mode when they realized the Democratic presidential candidate overstated in February of this year the pressure she got from women’s groups to vote for a 2001 bankruptcy bill as a senator.

The correspondence between top aides on how to quickly remedy Clinton’s comments came out in a batch of hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s email account published by Wikileaks on Tuesday. The email chain began with Clinton research director Tony Carrk highlighting a portion of an interview Sen. Elizabeth Warren did with Bill Moyers where the Massachusetts senator criticized the bill before Moyers noted Clinton voted for it.

“We have a problem,” Clinton campaign senior policy adviser Ann O’Leary emailed on Feb. 7. “HRC overstayed [sic] her case this morning in a pretty big way. Marcia, Judy and I have been figuring out what we could say that doesn't contradict their 2001 statement. But my other idea is to have women Senators who all voted for it to put out statement.”

Deputy communications director Kristina Schake asked what Clinton said what was wrong.

“She said women groups were all pressuring her to vote for it. Evidence does not support that statement,” O’Leary replied.

The aides on the email chain then rushed to reach the chiefs of staff for Sens. Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, and Barbara Boxer to get the trio of senators to issue supportive statements on voting for the bankruptcy bill. O’Leary said they could not directly address women’s groups in their response.

“Women's Groups - We cannot put something out proactive here b/c the record just isn't good,” O’Leary wrote.


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As they staffed up, Clinton camp worried about offending Biden

As they staffed up for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in early 2015, her top aides worried about offending Vice President Joe Biden and debated how early to set up a meeting with him, according to one hacked email exchange published by WikiLeaks on Tuesday.

On January 27, 2015, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin emailed with Cheryl Mills and Robby Mook to alert them that Biden’s staff said the vice president could meet with Clinton the following week. Acknowledging that the meeting would leak to the press, Abedin asked them to confirm that they were “all still on board with her seeing him.” John Podesta was copied on the aides' exchange.

Their responses indicate that they recognized that the relationship between Biden and the Clinton camp was sensitive, given that they were looking to hire some of his supporters and the possibility that the vice president could mount his own run for the Democratic nomination.

Mills replied that she had no objections, though added that “if we could do it later I would.” Mook advocated going ahead with the meeting and suggested delaying involving Biden could make him more likely to challenge Clinton.

“I worry the later we wait the more possibility there is that he'll get offended,” Mook wrote. “I'd rather have it leak and him feel respected than delay and he feel more pressure to run.”

He added: “But I don't know the guy at all…”

Abedin signaled her agreement: “Part of our challenge is we are interviewing people in his office and I am concerned he finds out and additionally feels like we are taking people from under him,” she wrote.

Mook and Mills suggested that Podesta was in favor of the meeting and concluded that they should go ahead with it.

“Fine to do - manage for the leak,” Mills wrote.


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Rep. Lofgren warns about Clinton siding with FBI on encryption debate

The day after a federal magistrate ordered Apple to help the Justice Department access a dead terrorist’s locked, encrypted iPhone, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) tried to find out where Hillary Clinton stood in the encryption debate.

“I hope that our candidate does not leap on the side of the FBI on the encryption ruling,” the California Democrat wrote in an email to campaign chairman John Podesta. “If she is leaning that way, can I talk with her?”

Podesta replied, “Let me [check] where we are on this and whether there is a need for a call.”

Clinton would not end up siding firmly with either Apple or the government on the question of whether investigators should have guaranteed access to encrypted communications. She has called for a national commission to study the issue but declined to comment further.

It is unclear whether Lofgren and Clinton ever spoke about encryption.

The government eventually unlocked the iPhone without Apple’s help by purchasing a custom tool from an unknown third party.


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Tanden suggests Clinton hand over email server to third party

Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress and a longtime Hillary Clinton confidante, had what she thought was a reasonable suggestion about Clinton’s private email server.

“Why doesn't she just turn the server over to a third party at this point?” Tanden wrote to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta on Aug. 12, 2015, about five months after news broke about Clinton’s use of the server for government business.

“Isn't it going to leak out of the FBI anyway?” Tanden added.

The previous day, the Clinton campaign had said that the former secretary of state would turn over her server to the Justice Department, as part of the FBI’s investigation into whether she had mishandled classified information.

Podesta responded tersely that Tanden should forget about it and focus her energy elsewhere.

“Done so think about something else,” he wrote back.


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Sanders' Wall Street attacks left Clinton aides divided on a response

Hillary Clinton's advisors were divided on how to address Bernie Sanders' attacks that she was too cozy with Wall Street, according to correspondence released to the public by Wikileaks.

In emails between top Clinton aides came ahead of a speech Clinton planned for January, advisors debated whether to try and drive .

"HRC does not want to call Bernie out by name in her speech Wednesday night, but she does want to drive a more effective and comprehensive contrast with him. In particular, she's keen to find a way to keep going after him on Wall Street (she's convinced his plan is naive and unworkable) as part of a broader indictment," Clinton director of speechwriting Dan Schwerin wrote to fellow Clinton advisers on January 6.

Other senior aides though urged caution.

"I liked messing with Bernie on wall street at a staff level for the purposes of muddying the waters and throwing them off their game a bit," responded communications director Jennifer Palmieri. "But don't [sic] know that it is most effective contrast for her. Seems like we are picking the fight he wants to have. If we really want to do this, think your formulation is good but not [convinced] it is a good idea."

Clinton campaign adviser Mandy Grunwald quickly supported Palmieri.

"I agree with you. Bernie wants a fight on a Wall Street. We should not give him one," Grunwald wrote. "Our polling shows this is one of our weakest areas. Further, our Wall Street approach has always been to agree about the problem, show passion about it, and say we have a better approach to holding the rascals accountable."

So Schwerin offered up new language so he wouldn't have to go to Clinton "empty handed."

The proposed language said "I have plans that will actually help families get ahead and stay ahead… that will make the wealthy pay their fair share, hold corporate price gougers, polluters, and Wall Street speculators accountable, and prevent the Republicans from taking us backwards. And you can count on me to get the job done."

Policy adviser Jake Sullivan wrote that that was "good," but Grunwald offered more direct language.

" I know Senator Sanders attacked me on this, that his choice. But the truth is, he and I both want to crack down on the risky behavior on Wall Street, we both want to make sure people go to jail when they cross the line. I think my plan is tougher because it also cracks down on the shadow banking world but the real difference is that every single Republican wants to get RID of the new financial regulations," Grunwald's counter proposal read.

Grunwald quickly followed up with one more email.

"My concern on this continues to be that Bernie gets to whack her around and she is purely positive to him in reply," Grunwald wrote.


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Ted Turner pushed Podesta on Obama cabinet pick

Ted Turner, cable media tycoon and Clinton foundation mega donor, can add a new line to his resume: freelance Interior Department advisor.

In an email exchange with Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, the CNN founder lavished praise on John Berry, a veteran of President Bill Clinton’s administration, for consideration as head of Interior under President Barack Obama.

“As the nation's largest private landowner, I would like to express my strong support of John Berry for appointment as Interior Secretary,” Turner wrote in December 2008, according to a newly released batch of emails unearthed by WikiLeaks.

Turner, who rents the Democratic nominee office space for her campaign operation in Montana and did previously occupy the top spot as the country’s largest private landowner until 2011, praised Berry’s dedication to preserving the “country's natural resources and cultural heritage.”

“Never in our history has it been more important to protect our national resources, and Mr. Berry has the unique combination of passion, experience and expertise to oversee the Department of the Interior at this critical juncture for our environment. I sincerely believe John's vision and that of the President-elect are complementary and Mr. Berry will serve as Interior Secretary with passion and distinction,” he continued.

Turner also noted Berry’s accomplishments while serving in leadership positions at the National Zoo and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation


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Clinton ally to Podesta: 'Hillary is almost totally dependent on Republicans nominating Trump'

Brent Budowsky, a former Hill staffer and media commentator, emailed Podesta to express his concern about the relative weakness of Clinton’s candidacy.

“Right now I am petrified that Hillary is almost totally dependent on Republicans nominating Trump,” Budowsky said in a March email. “[E]ven a clown like Ted Cruz would be an even money bet to beat and this scares the of out me.”

Budowsky suggested that Clinton “look for issues where she can dovetail with Bernie [Sanders]” to appeal to his supporters. Budowsky also suggested that Clinton’s knocks against Sanders were unfair, saying she should stop attacking him “especially when she says things that are untrue, which candidly she often does.”


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Clinton team debates how bold to be at Benghazi hearing

Hillary Clinton campaign advisers debate how boldly to challenge the chairman of the House Benghazi committee over her emails related to the September 2012 terrorist attack.

Deputy communications director Kristina Schake sent campaign chairman John Podesta a draft statement on March 12, 2015, in which Clinton would call on committee Chairman Trey Gowdy to release all of her Benghazi-related emails. The campaign, like the Democrats on the panel, didn’t want Gowdy and the Republicans presenting a distorted picture of what Clinton said at the time.

The draft also had Clinton recounting her many hours of Benghazi testimony before other committees and adding, “I’ve already said that I’m more than happy to testify again.”


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Christiane Amanpour asks Foundation for intro to North Korean dictator

When veteran war correspondent Christiane Amanpour wanted to get in touch with one of the world’s most reclusive dictators, former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, she turned to Hillary Clinton’s family foundation for help.

In an email exchange on Aug. 6, 2009, CNN’s chief international correspondent reached out to Doug Band, a businessman who helped start a wing of the Clinton foundation, praising the successful release of two American journalists abroad and requesting a possible meeting with the North Korean leader.

“I wanted to send congratulations to President Clinton on securing the release of the two American journalists. I would also like to ask whether it would be possible to help move ahead my request to interview Kim Jong Il,” she started.

Amanpour noted that she recalls Band accompanying former President Bill Clinton on a trip to the isolationist regime in 2009, which raised questions about the foundation’s ties to the State Department at the time.

“I know you accompanied the President on this fascinating trip,” she wrote. “Getting a first hand look and feel for Kim Jong Il is incredibly valuable. I myself have been to Pyongyang with the NY Philharmonic last year, and later in June ’08 as one of a very small group of journalists invited to witness and report the destruction of the Yongbyon cooling tower. During my trip I was the only journalist to hold an exclusive meeting with Kim Gae Gwan, the chief nuclear negotiator who welcomed President Clinton upon his arrival.”

“I pressed my case for an interview then and am obviously keen to keep doing so,” she wrote.

Amanpour ended by offering an open invitation for Clinton to appear on her cable news show, which had not yet launched, and doubling down on her request for channels to securing an interview with the former North Korean dictator.

If there are any leads with the North Korean leadership you could help me pursue, I would be most grateful.”


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Clinton advisers debate whether Hillary should crack an email joke

Hillary Clinton’s advisers briefly considered having her joke about her use of a private email account for government work when she addressed the pro-choice group Emily’s List the day after the story broke.

“Greetings,” Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri wrote to a number of advisers on March 3. “I wanted to float idea of HRC making a joke about the email situation at the Emily's List dinner tonight. What do folks think about that?”

Palmieri’s deputy, Kristina Schake, replied that “it would be good for her to show some humor” and observed that the Emily’s List audience “is her crowd so the response would be great.”

But senior adviser Mandy Grunwald argued that joking about the new revelation was risky. “We don't know what's in the emails, so we are nervous about this,” she wrote, after saying she had discussed the idea with campaign strategist Jim Margolis. “Might get a big laugh tonight and regret it when content of emails is disclosed.”


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Financier Robert Wolf feeds Clinton team on Frank Luntz genius

Clinton ally Robert Wolf, a former investment banker, sat in on a closed call in January with famed GOP spinster Frank Luntz — and reported back to the Clinton campaign. On the call, Luntz made several accurate predictions well ahead of conventional wisdom.

“I have to admit I had no idea what to expect but was pretty impressed by the depth & breadth of the call as well as the diverse audience & questions,” Wolf said in an email to John Podesta and Jake Sullivan. “I want to be clear at no time was he disrespectful to Potus nor HRC but the questions certainly showed a right leaning audience.”

Luntz hit several bullseyes. Luntz, according to Wolf, said that Bernie Sanders’ “ground game is being underestimated and the primary will last longer than anyone expected.”

He also predicted the chatter around a potential brokered convention months in advance and gave Trump the highest probability of winning.

Luntz wasn’t perfect and made some predictions that ultimately ended up not coming to fruition, like expecting the South Carolina Democratic primary to be closer than expected.

Wolf said people from companies like Amazon and the National Football League were also on the call.


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Clinton adviser feared antagonizing Warren over Glass-Steagall

At one point last year, Hillary Clinton was "leaning toward" endorsing a reinstatement of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that separated commercial and investment banking, according to an alleged campaign email exchange in the latest batch of John Podesta's emails released by WikiLeaks.

The email string, which has not been verified by the Clinton campaign, provides a rare glimpse into the internal debate among top Clinton aides before the release of her Wall Street regulation plan in October 2015.

The conversation underlines the looming presence of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who is one of the party's most outspoken bank critics. One of Warren's signature legislative proposals is a modern-day Glass-Steagall - a policy that Clinton ultimately declined to support in favor of a less dramatic regulatory platform.

Just days before the campaign released her Wall Street plan, adviser Mandy Grunwald, who previously worked for Warren, said in an email that she is worried "that we will antagonize and activate Elizabeth Warren by opposing a new Glass-Steagall." Grunwald said she worried about "defending the banks in the debate."

Grunwald said she was concerned about Warren deciding to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary.

"Jake says this is a political decision," Grunwald said in the email, likely referring to Clinton aide Jake Sullivan. "My understand from HRC is that she left her call kind of leaning toward endorsing Glass-Steagall. I understand that we face phoniness charges if we 'change' our position now - but we face political risks this way too."

In a follow-up message, campaign Chief Financial Officer Gary Gensler - a former financial regulator respected by the Warren wing of the party - said he "spoke with EW twice this week and numerous earlier times re Glass-Steagall as well as possible other Financial reform proposals."

A Clinton campaign spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. The campaign in general has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the emails.


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Univision owner Haim Saban pushes Clinton team to Latino strategy

Major Hillary Clinton donor and Univision owner Haim Saban pushed Clinton to come out more forcefully against Donald Trump for his remarks about Mexican immigrants — but also expressed concerned that Univision was starting to be seen as too pro-Clinton, hacked emails released by Wikileaks show.

In the summer of 2015, shortly after Trump launched his campaign with the pronouncement that Mexico sends over illegal immigrants who are “rapists”, Saban told the Clinton team in multiple emails and phone calls that he thought Clinton needed to do more to push back on the comments and shore up Latino support.

"Haim thinks we are under reacting to Trump/Hispanics. Thinks we can get something by standing up for Latinos or attacking R's for not condemning,” Clinton campaign chair John Podesta wrote to senior members of the campaign.

Clinton campaign vice chair Huma Abedin wrote back that “if Haim is raising it, it means he’s hearing it from his Univision colleagues."

Univision has not been shy about its position on immigration or Trump. Top anchor Jorge Ramos has famously tangled with the Republican nominee and denounced him, saying he is “spreading hate.” Though Ramos has also drawn criticism from some in the mainstream media, who say he strays from objectivity into advocacy, Univision News President Isaac Lee — who has equated speaking truth in today’s politics to speaking out against the Nazis during World War II — has vigorously defended Ramos’ journalist-activist role.

As a result of Saban’s urging, the Clinton campaign drafted a detailed media plan around Clinton’s planned speech before a Latino advocacy group and included an interview with Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas.

But in later emails from August of 2015, Saban seemed concerned that Univision was appearing to be too pro-Clinton. He forwarded to Abedin an article from Hot Air published in May of 2015, headlined "The press is starting to notice Univision’s pro-Hillary boosterism”, which linked to a piece by POLITICO about the deep Univision/Clinton relationship. "I have nothing to do with it,” Saban wrote. "i NEVER tell our news dep. What to cover.,,,unlike some of my peers."

Abedin replied “welcome to our world!"

That doesn't mean Saban didn't enjoy when Univision helped Clinton. Rob Friedman, former Co-Chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group sent Saban an email praising Univision's Democratic debate from March of 2016.

"I just wanted to tell you that I thought the moderators for last nights Debate were excellent," Friedman wrote. "They were thoughtful, tough and incisive. I thought it made Hilary appear direct and strong in her resolve. I felt it advanced our candidate. Thanks for Univision. "

“I like this one," Saban wrote, forwarding the note to Clinton's top staff.

In a statement, Univision emphasized its business-editorial separation.

“Univision News is an editorially independent division of Univision Communications Inc. We are devoted to in-depth, quality journalism and maintain or independence from the larger corporation. Mr. Saban has always respected that independence and has never tried to get involved or made any requests to our news division.”


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Leaked emails show Podesta floated Steyer for Obama Cabinet position

John Podesta allegedly told Barack Obama's campaign in 2008 that billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer should be among the candidates for a top job in Obama's Cabinet, according to leaked emails released by Wikileaks on Monday.

In response to a September 2008 email from Cassandra Butts, a lawyer who was working on the Obama campaign's transition team, Podesta offered his advice on who should get top spots at the EPA and the Energy Department.

In her initial email, Butts listed Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rensselaer Polytechnic Ins ute President Shirley Ann Jackson, former Clinton Energy Department official Robert Gee and Jonathan Pershing, who at that time had experience working at the State Department and the International Energy Agency, as possible candidates for Energy secretary. And she listed then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and former Clinton White House staffer Todd Stern as candidates for EPA administrator.

Podesta, in his response, said Gee and Pershing should be assistant secretaries at the Energy Department, "not higher." And he said Jackson "should be considered" for Energy secretary. Under Obama, Pershing would go on to serve in a senior role at the Energy Department and as the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change at the State Department.

He then listed three additional suggestions for the top spot at the Energy Department: Tom Steyer, who was then a hedge fund manager at Farallon Capital, then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and former Sen. Tim Wirth. He added that former Pennsylvania environment official Katie McGinty, then-Massachusetts environment official Ian Bowles and Yale environmental law professor Dan Esty should be considered for EPA administrator.

In 2008, Steyer was little known on the national political stage. He would soon retire from his career as a hedge fund manager to launch a super PAC devoted to elevating climate change as a political issue.

Podesta was also apparently on the Obama campaign's shortlist. "Needless to say, your name has come up repeatedly in our consultations," Butts wrote. Podesta returned to the White House in Obama's second term as a senior adviser and he is now Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.

Neither Butts nor Podesta mentioned the two people who would go on to lead EPA and the Energy Department in Obama's first term: Lisa Jackson and Steven Chu.

In a separate February 2012 email chain released by Wikileaks, Podesta allegedly discussed preparations for a meeting between Steyer and Bill Clinton, saying he would encourage Steyer to support the Clinton Foundation.

Another email chain, from January 2014, appears to shows Podesta was unhappy about a letter from a coalition of environmental groups calling on Obama to be more aggressive about tackling climate change and bashing his "all of the above" strategy.

"Enviro letter today stupid and unhelpful. I'm on the warpath," Podesta wrote in a Jan. 16, 2014 email to Steyer, the same day the environmentalists' letter was publicly released.

Neither Podesta, nor a Steyer spokeswoman immediately responded to a request for comment.


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Podesta makes sure White House isn’t mad about Clinton’s comments on Obama

After Hillary Clinton discussed President Barack Obama’s record in a September 2015 “Face the Nation” interview, John Podesta turned to Obama’s chief of staff to gauge if there was any “grumpiness” in the White House about her answers.

The hacked email exchange between Podesta and Denis McDonough from September 20, 2015, suggests that the Clinton campaign was sensitive about rubbing the president and his advisors the wrong way if Clinton diverged with him.

Podesta wrote that he thought Clinton was “generous” to Obama on his handling of the economy and his signature healthcare law, while she was “tough on the Pentagon on train and equip, but didn't take any swipes at him.”

Asked by John erson on the show about the lack of success with training and arming Syrian rebels, Clinton said that she "wouldn't give up" on the train and equip effort, but critiqued the U.S.'s strategy. The U.S. had been "trying to train people to only take on ISIS and terrorist networks" but not "training and equipping them to take on Assad or his military or his proxies," she said.

"I sure would push the Pentagon to take a hard look why what has been done has been such a failure and what more we could do to support, like, Kurdish fighters who are on the front lines," she said.

“Trying to calibrate whether we are threading the needle ok with you guys after Valerie getting her nose out of joint on Keystone,” Podesta wrote, presumably referencing Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett and Clinton’s earlier decision to break with the president and oppose the Keystone pipeline.

Podesta added that Jarrett “watches too much Morning Joe”; “they are the only people who viewed her comments on being frustrated with the delay as a frontal attack on POTUS,” he wrote.

Podesta concluded his email with a personal request of McDonough, referring to the upcoming China state dinner. “[N]ot to sound like a whining weasel, but should I assume I didn't make the cut on the China dinner?” he wrote. “Haven't heard anything and both Mary and I are trying to figure out travel plans.”

McDonough replied assuring Podesta that “You def are on invite list” for the dinner, and said he would “check on” the response to “Face the Nation.”


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Reines blows up at Podesta over leak accusation

Philippe Reines, a longtime Clinton confidante who has tapped to play Donald Trump in debate prep, blew up at Podesta in a hacked email over implications that Reines was leaking information to the press.

“You got to stop this,” Podesta emails to Reines, while cc’ing Cherryl Mills. “If we are going to be at each others [sic] throats before we start, we are going nowhere.”

Reines shoots back, saying in an email that “with all due respect, and reluctantly to do this in front of HRC except for wanting to defend myself against being labeled as a cancer - but the conclusion that it is ME that has to stop ‘this’ is really unfair.”

“Again, with all due respect, your reaction to me is unfair in that's [sic] it's stronger than any admonition anyone else has received who is actually doing something wrong,” he continues. “With that, I'm going to sit queitly [sic] in the corner until Cheryl calls me to admonish me for sending this reply and digging myself into an even deeper hole with you than I already was.”


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Podesta had phone-friendly relationship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg


Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta has a phone-friendly relationship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

A new email released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday shows that Podesta received a phone call from Ginsburg on December 15, 2008, according to a log of missed calls from that day.

“Justice Ginsburg, returning your call,” the email states, following the Supreme Court justice’s phone number.

The ongoing relationship between a top Clinton campaign official and a sitting Supreme Court justice comes at a time of increased interest in the country’s highest court during the presidential election after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February 2016.

Ginsburg has railed against Donald Trump as a “faker,” but later said such comments were “ill-advised.”


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Podesta 'pushed' invite to Canada state dinner for former pipeline lobbyist

What does it take to get invited to a state dinner? Apparently, even a former U.S. ambassador to the country honored by such festivities can struggle to get a seat, even when he has connections to one of the Democratic Party's top operators and has donated thousands of dollars to Democrats.

In a hacked email posted by WikiLeaks on Tuesday, former U.S. ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin -- who later served as a lobbyist for the company pushing the Keystone XL pipeline -- pledged to continue helping Hillary Clinton’s campaign behind the scenes. Giffin is a "Hillblazer" who has contributed or raised at least $100,000 for Clinton and her joint funds with the Democratic Party.

But in the email Giffin, who served in his position from 1997 to 2001, also asked for a small favor from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta: an invitation to the Canadian state dinner on March 10, 2016.

“It would mean a lot to me to be invited to that dinner,” Giffin wrote to Podesta in January 2016. “Frankly, I do not have close ties to the WH staff and am hoping that you might intercede on my behalf in the right spot to advocate for me. The last time there was a State Dinner was 1997 and I was invited-before I was named as ambassador.”

Podesta had just finished a stint in the White House a year before and was known to oppose Keystone, but replied it was "[a]lways tough but let me see what I can do."

He later reported back: "I pushed this with Denis McDonough and Anita Breckenridge who is his deputy. I don't know the new social secretary. Didn't really get a signal back."

Ultimately, while Deadpool’s Ryan Reynolds and Back to the Future’s Michael J. Fox were on the guest list, Giffin was not.

But perhaps Podesta lucked out by not securing the invite: Giffin chairs the energy practice at the global law firm Dentons, and one of his former clients was TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline. Giffin is also a member of the board of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, an investor in the pipeline that paid Clinton $150,000 for a speech in January 2015.

President Barack Obama rejected a permit for the controversial project last fall, a decision Hillary Clinton supported, calling the pipeline "a distraction from important work we have to do on climate change."


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[ducks]

Clinton ‘not in the same place’ as her aides on email scandal

As the furor over Hillary Clinton’s emails built in the summer of 2015, the Democratic candidate appears to have resisted at least some of her team’s advice about how to get ahead of the story. In an email to other aides, Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said she viewed the decision to turn over thumb drives and a computer server to the Justice Department as a chance for Clinton to try to move past the controversy, but Clinton apparently had a different view.

“As you all know, I had hoped that we could use the ‘server moment’ as an opportunity for her to be viewed as having take [sic] a big step to deal with the email problem that would best position us for what is ahead. It is clear that she is not in same place (unless John has a convo with her and gets her in a different place),” Palmieri wrote in the August 8 email.

Palmieri proposed that the campaign put out word after the Sunday talk shows the following day that Clinton had surrendered the thumb drives and server to the Justice Department then do an interview with Univision where she would talk about the decision during a broader discussion about college costs. However, the timing ultimately slipped a bit, with the campaign announcing the move late on Tuesday, after she’d already taped the Univision interview earlier that day.


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[ducks]

Leaked Email: Hillary Hates Phrase 'Everyday Americans'

[clambake]

whoa, check your heart rate.

[ducks]

"I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans, but I think we should use it once the first time she says, 'I'm running for president because you and everyday Americans need a champion,'" Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta wrote. "I think if she doesn't say it once, people will notice and say we false started in Iowa."

Dan Schwerin, Clinton's director of speechwriting, wrote the original email that contains a 1,000-plus word speech Clinton was to deliver at Whitney Brothers, a children's furniture store in Keene, N.H.

[ducks]

"I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans, but I think we should use it once the first time she says, 'I'm running for president because you and everyday Americans need a champion,'" Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta wrote. "I think if she doesn't say it once, people will notice and say we false started in Iowa."

Dan Schwerin, Clinton's director of speechwriting, wrote the original email that contains a 1,000-plus word speech Clinton was to deliver at Whitney Brothers, a children's furniture store in Keene, N.H.