With just over 2 weeks to go until the election, today Wikileaks finally crossed the halfway point of its ongoing Podesta files dump when it unveiled Part 15, which included some 1,095 emails bringing the total to 26,095 total emails, or more than half of the 50,000 email set for release.
RELEASE: The Podesta Emails Part 15 https://t.co/wzxeh70oUm #PodestaEmails #PodestaEmails15 #imWithHer #HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/UxQZbrgxa1
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 22, 2016
As has been the tradition for the past 2+ weeks, one part of the press will be pouring over today’s release, while the other part – mostly those whose names feature prominently in the hacked emails – will be looking for justifications not to. Some examples of journalists who will be taking Saturday off, are named in the following July 8, 2015 email from Jesse Lehrich to John Podesta which lays out how the “friendly” press helps in article scheduling to spin a given narrative:
On Wednesday, July 8, 2015, Jesse Lehrich <[email protected]> wrote:
July 8th Nightly Press Traffic Summary
- Peter Nicholas (WSJ) is doing a story for Friday on caucus organizing efforts and the Sanders campaign’s theory that caucuses will be good for them in the same way that they were for Obama. We’ve pushed back with our theory of the case, including our strong organizing effort in Iowa and beyond.
- Per CTR, Amy Chozick is working on story for this weekend about how the GOP will attack Hillary, will likely include focus group data suggesting that trustworthiness and being out-of-touch will be top targets.
- Maggie Haberman is doing a write-through of her story on Hillary Clinton’s claim that she had never been subpoenaed for tomorrow’s paper which will include the statement we put out this afternoon.
- Michael Scherer (TIME) is working on a story delving into the claim that Hillary Clinton was under no obligation to turn over 55,000 pages of emails.
- Steven Holmes (CNN) is working on a piece with the premise that the black vote is the firewall for Hillary Clinton and Sanders is unlikely to make major inroads there.
- Annie Linskey (Boston Globe) is writing for Friday about new fundraising hosts getting involved in this campaign, specifically females.
- Jeremy Diamond (CNN) is doing a piece about the politics of the BDS movement. It will place heavy focus on the nuances and forces at play around Hillary Clinton’s letter that was sent to presidents of major Jewish organizations condemning BDS.
- Huffington Post is doing a piece on our treasurer Jose Villareal — will likely focus at least partially on him sitting on the Walmart board.
- Other outstanding stories include:
- Ruby Cramer on our grassroots organizing
- Anita Kumar (McClatchy) on where we have organizers and how we’ve spent our money during Q2
- Mike Memoli on our email listbuilding
- Phil Rucker on HRC talking about gun violence prevention
- Maggie Haberman/Pat Healy on the costs of Hillary’s progressive proposals
- Annie Karni on the progression of our media strategy
- CNN’s long-form story about Hillary Clinton/Bernie Sanders’ appeal to minority communities.
As usual, we will highlight any of the more notable emails.
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In a March 2014 email from John Podesta’s son Gabe, a USAF Judge Advocate, wrote to his family and father John, from Afghanistan, explaining what Americans are really doing in Afghanistan and comparing his workplace to the fashion show ‘Project Runway’.
As he sayd, “when I learned that I was deploying to support a contracting command, I figured I would learn about the Afghan economy. What I hadn’t figured was that those lessons would have nothing to do with my official duties. When I stepped off the helo pad at Camp Phoenix and into my office for the first time I was immediately introduced to GS-15 DoD employee. She asked me how many “cartouches”I wished to purchase. A cartouche, I learned, is a cheap pendant necklace engraved on one side with an English name and on the other with the same name in Dari (or so they claim; it may well say Go Home American Swine for all any of us know). I initially demurred but eventually relented and agreed to purchase three. Even that compromise was met with an incredulous look and a puzzled “just three?” The interaction seemed odd but I figured that I just happened to arrive as a bulk order was being placed and that purchases like this were atypical. I was wrong. My coworkers spend multiple duty hours each and every day shopping at the bazaars. They buy jewelry. They buy rugs. They buy electronics. They buy fur coats. Fur coats! Not a day goes by without someone coming into my office to show off a new purchase. My Afghanistan workplace is Project Runway and I’m Tim Gunn–I disapprove of everything around me and hope everyone will be sent home.
Yesterday a handful of them reviewed their bank statements to figure out how much they’ve spent since being here. Consensus was between five and ten thousand dollars. Throughout my life I’ve been called cheap. Throughout my life I’ve been called crotchety. So maybe this is just a continuation of the same but I thoroughly disapprove. Rather than speak up, however, I sit here meekly and feign agreement with the ridiculous notion that a mink fur will look resplendent at the Dyess Officers’ Club in Abilene, TX when she redeploys this summer. Hope you are well. Love and miss you all. And no, I will not put in purchase orders for you. Gabe
And that’s why US intervention in Afghanistan has achieved absolutely nothing.
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In a 2008 email from Tom Matttzie, founder of Ethical Electric, and former staffer of the DNC, he explains that George Soros was a key force behind the 2008 electoral ad campaign:
Michael Vachon had me come up to New York today to sit with George Soros and show him our ads. He liked them…a lot. And he REALLY liked McSame. I thought I’d be skewered for name puns but he thought it was sticky. Since he is a right-wing punching bag he just wanted to make sure he was OK with anything he was accused of funding
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In an August 2015 email, Clinton Global Initiative Deputy Director Ed Hughes sent an email to Ami tabh Desai, Director of Foreign Policy at the Clinton Foundation, in which he suggests that the Foundation has become a “doormat to the Jordanians”:
I’m all seriousness, I really want to know how you think you are serving President Clinton’s interests by serving as a doormat to the Jordanians? How is his legacy enhanced by that? It’s not our job to be rubber stamps.
* * *
In a July 2015 email from Andy Spahn, founder and president of Andy Spahn & Associates who raises money from megadonors Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen for Democratic candidates, writes to Clinton staffer Robby Mook to tell him that he “had breakfast with Haim [Saban] this am. Talked with him about importance of Latino VR and Univision. Urged him to take the lead the way Murdoch has with his media outlets. Haim seemed intrigued. Worth pursuing.” To this Mook responds that he is working with La Raza on just that: ‘Love it. We are at La Raza week after next and plan a ramp up planned. Should be lots to cover.”
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It increasingly looks like the weakest link for the Clinton Foundation – and Bill and Hillary – is Teneo’s Doug Band, who resigned from the Clinton Foundation in April 2015 as he continued to accuse the Clintons of illicit affairs at the foundation. As the following March 2015 email reveals, just before Band left the foundation, Neera Tander and John Podesta were worried that Doug Band was going to “sing” about the “real HRC scandal“
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