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Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016/WikiLeaks
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In October 2016, WikiLeaks released more than 30,000 emails allegedly obtained from the email archive of John Podesta, the chair of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. These emails, spanning from 2000 to 2016, include excerpts of Clinton's paid speeches to Wall Street firms and other companies, strained exchanges between members of Clinton's inner circle, and concerns about the Clinton Foundation and potential conflicts of interest.[1]
The October release was not the first time that WikiLeaks became involved with the 2016 presidential election. In July 2016, WikiLeaks published thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) appearing to show that some members of the DNC favored Clinton over her chief rival, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), during the primary. U.S. officials have said that they have "high confidence" that Russia was involved with the leak.[2]
While the Clinton campaign declined to authenticate the emails, several Republicans described the emails in the leak as "offensive" and indicative of "corruption."[3][4][5]
Democratic National Committee email leak
- See also: Democratic National Committee (DNC) email leak, 2016 and Democratic National Convention, 2016
WikiLeaks first became entangled in the 2016 presidential election when it released 19,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on July 22, 2016, just three days prior to the start of the Democratic National Convention. The emails included negative comments from U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who was then the chair of the DNC, and other party officials about the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).[6]
In the emails, DNC staffers proposed publicly raising the question of whether or not Sanders was an atheist, questioned Sanders' loyalty to the party, and considered portraying Sanders as someone who has "never ever had his act together." Other emails highlighted the DNC's push for fewer debates. Sanders stated, "I mean, there's no question to my mind and I think no question to any objective observer's mind that the DNC was supporting Hillary Clinton, and was at opposition to our campaign."[7][8][9][10]
As a result, Wasserman Schultz resigned from her post as the party's chair on July 28, 2016. The DNC also issued the following formal apology to Sanders and his supporters:
| “ | On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to Sen. Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email. These comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process. The DNC does not—and will not—tolerate disrespectful language exhibited toward our candidates. Individual staffers have also rightfully apologized for their comments, and the DNC is taking appropriate action to ensure it never happens again.[11] | ” |
| —Democratic National Committee, July 25, 2016[12] | ||
Assange and rumors of an "October surprise"
After Clinton secured the Democratic presidential nomination, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, said that he intended to release more documents relating to Clinton. Commenting on the contents of the future release, Assange said in an interview on August 24, 2016, "I think it's significant. You know, it depends on how it catches fire in the public and in the media." He added that it would take time to review the documents. "We have to assess the voracity, we have a perfect ten-year record so far of never getting it wrong. We want to keep that reputation. Understanding how to keep things should be formatted, what media we should be involved in. What is the best way to stage it out? Do we accumulate everything in one batch or do we consider—several batches. We decided to do several batches," he said.[13]
During a press conference to honor WikiLeaks' tenth anniversary on October 4, 2016, Assange reiterated that he planned to release documents "significant" to the presidential election. He denied, however, that he planned to do so specifically to harm Clinton's campaign. "In this particular case, the misquoting has to do with that we intend to harm Hillary Clinton or that I intend to harm Hillary Clinton, or I don't like Hillary Clinton—all those are false. They come about as a result of...it seems of this campaign and this trying to personalize our publications," Assange said.[14]
Three days later, WikiLeaks began to publish thousands of emails allegedly obtained from the email archive of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.
Authenticity and alleged Russian involvement
After the first batch of emails was published on October 7, 2016, the Clinton campaign refused to comment on its authenticity and asserted that Russia had been involved in the WikiLeaks release. Clinton spokesperson Glen Caplin released the following statement:
| “ | Earlier today the U.S. government removed any reasonable doubt that the Kremlin has weaponized WikiLeaks to meddle in our election and benefit Donald Trump’s candidacy. We are not going to confirm the authenticity of stolen documents released by Julian Assange, who has made no secret of his desire to damage Hillary Clinton. Guccifer 2.0 has already proven the warnings of top national security officials that documents can be faked as part of a sophisticated Russian misinformation campaign.[11] | ” |
| —Glen Caplin, October 7, 2016[15] | ||
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine also suggested that some of the emails could have been doctored during an interview on October 9, 2016. "I don't think we can dignify documents dumped by WikiLeaks and just assume they are all accurate and true. Anybody who hacks in to get documents is completely capable of manipulating them," Kaine said, although he did not provide an example from the leaked documents.[16]
A spokesperson from WikiLeaks rejected this argument, saying, "Standard nonsense pushed by those who have something to hide. WikiLeaks has won a great many awards for its journalistic work and has the best vetting record of any media organization.”[17]
The allegation that Russia was collaborating with WikiLeaks was first made in July 2016 after the DNC was hacked. The New York Times reported then that U.S. officials had "high confidence" that Russia was connected to the DNC hack, but could not state whether the intrusion was untargeted cyberespionage or designed to influence the 2016 presidential election.[2]
Since the October 2016 release of Podesta's emails, U.S. officials again indicated that it appeared that "Moscow is at least providing the information or is possibly directly responsible for the leaks."[18] Podesta also said that he had spoken with the FBI "as a victim" of hacking. “I’ve been involved in politics for nearly five decades. This definitely is the first campaign that I’ve been involved with in which I’ve had to tangle with Russian intelligence agencies who seem to be doing everything that they can on behalf of our opponent,” Podesta said.[19]
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied these allegations on October 12, 2016, calling them "hysteria."[20]
Notable emails
Wall Street speeches
In the first batch of emails published by WikiLeaks on October 7, 2016, were excerpts from Clinton's speeches to banking firms and companies between 2013 and 2015. They were featured in an email to Podesta and other top advisers that flagged potentially damaging portions of Clinton's paid speeches.[21] The speech excerpts cover a wide range of topics, including international trade, the security of electronic devices, healthcare, and banking policy.
In one excerpt from February 2014, Clinton expressed feeling "far removed" from her middle-class upbringing. "My father loved to complain about big business and big government, but we had a solid middle class upbringing. We had good public schools. We had accessible health care. We had our little, you know, one-family house that, you know, he saved up his money, didn't believe in mortgages. So I lived that. And now, obviously, I'm kind of far removed because the life I've lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy, but I haven't forgotten it," she said.[21]
She discussed her vision for open markets in a speech on May 16, 2013: "My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere."[21]
Some of the excerpts directly related to Wall Street and the financial industry. In an October 2013 speech at the Goldman Sachs AIMS Alternative Investments Symposium, Clinton said that it was an "oversimplification" to blame the global financial crisis on the United States and its banking system. "And I think that there's a lot that could have been avoided in terms of both misunderstanding and really politicizing what happened with greater transparency, with greater openness on all sides, you know, what happened, how did it happen, how do we prevent it from happening? You guys help us figure it out and let's make sure that we do it right this time," she continued.[21]
At the same event, Clinton said that people who worked in the financial industry knew it best. "There's nothing magic about regulations, too much is bad, too little is bad. How do you get to the golden key, how do we figure out what works? And the people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry," Clinton said.[21]
Clinton's comments in one speech excerpt about holding different "public" and "private" policy positions were discussed during the second presidential debate on October 9, 2016.
The eighth release of emails from WikiLeaks on October 15, 2016, included three complete transcripts of speeches that Clinton allegedly gave to Goldman Sachs.[22] For more information about the content of Clinton's paid speeches, click here.
Communication with Justice Department
- See also: Hillary Clinton email investigation
In an email thread from May 2015 between top Clinton aides Brian Fallon, Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, and Jennifer Palmieri, Fallon indicated that he was in communication with Department of Justice (DOJ) staffers regarding a case involving Clinton's emails from her time as secretary of state. "DOJ folks inform me there is a status hearing in this case this morning, so we could have a window into the judge's thinking about this proposed production schedule as quickly as today," Fallon wrote.[23]
The Trump campaign released a statement condemning the exchange on October 11, 2016. "Today’s report that Clinton’s campaign was in communication with the Obama Department of Justice on the email investigation shows a level of collusion which calls into question the entire investigation into her private server. The Department of Justice must release all communications with the Clinton campaign and her allies as soon as possible in order to definitively prove their investigation was completely above board," said Jason Miller, a senior communications adviser.[24]
Communication with State Department
In the batch of emails published November 2, 2016, a State Department official provided the Clinton campaign with the agency's response to The New York Times story that broke the news about Clinton's private email server use in March 2015. State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on the email itself but said that agency would contact Clinton's staffers sometimes "to ensure accuracy" in media communications.[25]
CNN town hall question
In another email published by WikiLeaks, Donna Brazile, the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, warned the Clinton campaign of a potentially difficult moderator question prior to the taping of a CNN town hall in March 2016. Brazile, who was a contributor to CNN at the time, sent top Clinton adviser Jennifer Palmieri the exact wording of a question about the death penalty. The subject of the email was "From time to time I get the questions in advance."[26][27]
Brazile denied the story in a statement. "As a longtime political activist with deep ties in our party, I supported all of our candidates for president. I often shared my thoughts with each and every campaign, and any suggestions that indicate otherwise are simply untrue. As it pertains to the CNN Debates, I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did," she said.[26]
CNN Vice President of Communications Barbara Levin also denied the allegations. "To be perfectly clear, we have never, ever given a town hall question to anyone beforehand," she said.[26]
Initially, Roland Martin, the moderator who asked the question, said that he had not shared his questions with anybody. He later amended, “I shared my questions with my executive producer, she was the one who sent my questions to the folks with CNN."[28]
Bill Clinton and Teneo
- See also: Clinton Foundation
Some of the emails WikiLeaks released highlighted disagreements between members of the Clintons' inner circle on how to manage the competing interests of the family. Chelsea Clinton expressed in 2011 "serious concerns" that Teneo, a consulting firm that had hired former President Bill Clinton as an adviser, was using his name to gain access to foreign officials for profit. She wrote that a Teneo employee had "called Members of the House and Members of Parliament, 'on behalf of President Clinton,' for Teneo clients...without my father's knowledge and inelegantly and ineffectually at best and at worse has now precipitating people in London making comparisons between my father and Tony Blair's profit motivations. Which would horrify my father."[29][30]
Chelsea Clinton had previously expressed concern with potential conflicts of interest at the Clinton Foundation, initiating an audit of the nonprofit's conflict of interest practices. Doug Band, an aide to Clinton and one of the founders of Teneo, told Bill Clinton that Chelsea Clinton was trying to "push him out" and "take over" in her efforts to "professionalize" the organization.[31] Documents were later drafted to clarify how Bill Clinton’s various personal and professional activities, at the Clinton Foundation and elsewhere, should be handled. According to Politico, "Band continued to be paid by the Clinton Foundation into 2012, and by Bill Clinton’s taxpayer-subsidized personal office through January 2013, but he has since become distanced from the family, even as Teneo’s clientele continued to overlap with the Clinton Foundation’s donor rolls."[30]
On October 26, 2016, WikiLeaks released another email from Band detailing how he encouraged Teneo's clients to both support the Clinton Foundation and hire Bill Clinton. "Independent of our fundraising and decision-making activities on behalf of the Foundation, we have dedicated ourselves to helping the President secure and engage in for-profit activities — including speeches, books, and advisory service engagements," he wrote in a 2011 memo. Band added that he was able to sometimes obtain "in-kind services for the president and his family — for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like." Donald Trump commented on the story during a rally in Ohio, saying, "Mr. Band called the arrangement 'unorthodox.' The rest of us call it outright corrupt." A spokesperson from Teneo said in a statement, "As the memo demonstrates, Teneo worked to encourage clients, where appropriate, to support the Clinton Foundation because of the good work that it does around the world. It also clearly shows that Teneo never received any financial benefit or benefit of any kind from doing so."[32][33]
Conservative Catholics
In an April 2011 email exchange between John Podesta, Jennifer Palmieri, and John Halpin, the conservative Catholic faith of Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thompson, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, was criticized. "Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic (many converts) from the SC and think tanks to the media and social groups. It's an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy," wrote Halpin.[34]
Palmieri responded, "I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn't understand if they became evangelicals."[34]
Dozens of Catholic and evangelical leaders condemned the language in a statement. They said, "The WikiLeaks emails reveal a contempt for all conservative Christians, and we are—Catholic and Evangelical—united in our outrage and united in our call for Mrs. Clinton to immediately apologize for the Christophobic behavior of her associates."[35]
Palmieri, a Catholic, dismissed the story on October 12, 2016. She said that she "didn't recognize (the email) but moreover ... we are not going to fact check each of the emails that were stolen, hacked by Russian lead efforts in an effort to hurt our campaign."[35]
"Needy Latinos"
On August 21, 2015, Podesta sent an email to Clinton and top Clinton aide Huma Abedin with the subject, "Needy Latinos and 1 easy call." Podesta advised Clinton on how to reach out to two leading Latino Democrats, former Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, to secure endorsements.[36]
Podesta recommended Clinton reach out to Peña as a favor to former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.). His comments about Richardson, however, indicated that there was tension between Richardson and the Clintons. "I had heard that you were upset that I encouraged a call between WJC and Richardson to bury the hatchet. I did that at the request of Jose Villarreal who pushed me and made the point that Richardson is still on TV a lot, especially on Univision and Telemundo and not withstanding the fact that he can be a dick, it was worth getting him in a good place. He had a good conversation with the President and has been good in his interviews since. I have pressed Bill, but I think it will take a call from you to get a formal endorsement. He's on Meet the Press on Sunday. Probably worth a quick call to ask him to stay stout and publicly endorse, but if it's too galling, don't bother," Podesta wrote.[36]
Clinton Global Initiative
In a January 2015 email exchange, Clinton aide Huma Abedin wrote that Morocco had agreed to host a Clinton Global Initiative summit because of Clinton's expected participation. Abedin added that King Mohammed VI had pledged $12 million to support the program.[37] Although Clinton was not secretary of state at the time of the event, the Clinton Foundation had previously received criticism for accepting money from foreign governments. Clinton ultimately declined to attend the event after it was revealed that OCP, a Moroccan export firm whose board included top Moroccan government officials, were also planning to contribute $1 million to the event.[37]
Reactions
Ecuador, which granted asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London, "temporarily restricted" Assange's access to the internet on October 15, 2016. "The foreign ministry said that while it stands by its 2012 decision to grant Assange asylum based on legitimate concerns he faces political persecution, it respects other nations’ sovereignty and doesn’t interfere or support any candidate in foreign elections," the Associated Press reported.[38]
Reince Priebus (R)
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Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Hillary Clinton WikiLeaks. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016
- Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016/Paid speeches
- Hillary Clinton email investigation
- Presidential election, 2016
Footnotes
- ↑ WikiLeaks, "The Podesta Emails," accessed October 14, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The New York Times, "Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked D.N.C." July 26, 2016
- ↑ Donald J. Trump for President, "What They Are Saying About Clinton Campaign's Anti-Catholic Bigotry," October 13, 2016
- ↑ The Atlantic, "What the WikiLeaks Emails Say About Clinton," October 12, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "Trump says WikiLeaks email shows collusion between Clinton, DOJ," October 11, 2016
- ↑ WikiLeaks, "Search the DNC email database," accessed October 14, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, "Released emails suggest the D.N.C. derided the Sanders campaign," July 22, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Here are the latest, most damaging things in the DNC’s leaked emails," July 25, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Emails show Debbie Wasserman Schultz pressured ‘Morning Joe’ — to no avail," July 25, 2016
- ↑ NPR, "Debbie Wasserman Schultz To Step Down As Democratic Chair After Convention," July 24, 2016
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ CNN, "Bernie Sanders: 'I am proud to stand with her,'" July 26, 2016
- ↑ Fox News, "Assange: WikiLeaks to release 'significant' Clinton material," August 24, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "No #OctoberSurprise from WikiLeaks at Julian Assange event," October 4, 2016
- ↑ The Huffington Post, "WikiLeaks Publishes Alleged Transcripts Of Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street Speeches," October 7, 2016
- ↑ The Chicago Tribune, "The inherent peril in trusting whatever WikiLeaks dumps on us," October 13, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Russians, lies and WikiLeaks," October 12, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "US finds growing evidence Russia feeding emails to WikiLeaks," October 13, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, "John Podesta Says Russian Spies Hacked His Emails to Sway Election," October 11, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "Lavrov denies Russian influence over US election," October 12, 2016
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 WikiLeaks, "HRC Paid Speeches," accessed October 11, 2016
- ↑ NPR, "WikiLeaks Claims To Release Hillary Clinton's Goldman Sachs Transcripts," October 15, 2016
- ↑ WikiLeaks, "Re:," May 26, 2015
- ↑ Donald J. Trump for President, "Statement on email Showing collusion between Obama DOJ and Clinton campaign," October 11, 2016
- ↑ ABC News, "Hacked Emails Show Clinton Campaign Communicated With State," November 2, 2016
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 U.S. News & World Report, "DNC’s Donna Brazile Denies Giving Hillary Clinton Early Access to Town Hall Question," October 11, 2016
- ↑ WikiLeaks, "Re: From time to time I get the questions in advance," March 12, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Brazile denies giving Clinton camp advance notice on CNN town hall question," October 11, 2016
- ↑ WikiLeaks, "Re: Fw: FYI," December 6, 2011
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Politico, "Chelsea flagged 'serious concerns' about Clinton Foundation conflicts," October 11, 2016
- ↑ WikiLeaks, "Re: Executive Staff Meeting/Call with John Podesta," November 10, 2011
- ↑ Associated Press, "Trump hits 'corrupt' Hillary Clinton; Mrs. Obama hugs her," October 27, 2016
- ↑ USA Today, "Memo shows Bill Clinton's wealth was tied to Clinton Foundation," October 27, 2016
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 WikiLeaks, "Re: Conservative Catholicism," April 11, 2011
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 CNN, "First on CNN: Religious leaders slam Clinton campaign over emails," October 13, 2016
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 WikiLeaks, "Needy Latinos and 1 easy call." August 21, 2015
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 CBS News, "Hacked emails show Clinton pushed for charity meeting in Morocco," October 21, 2016
- ↑ Associated Press, "Ecuador: We have 'temporarily restricted' Assange's internet," October 18, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "The most revealing Clinton campaign emails in WikiLeaks release," October 7, 2016
- ↑ ABC News, "Exclusive: Rubio: I Won't Talk About WikiLeaks, and Neither Should Donald Trump," October 9, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Sanders on WikiLeaks reveals: ‘Look forward, not backward,'" October 12, 2016
- ↑ Donald J. Trump for President, "Trump: WikiLeaks emails a window inside Clinton corruption," October 11, 2016
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