Today marks the 20th release of emails from a top Clinton aide by Wikileaks, as the internet group has turned up its attacks on Clinton, vowing to release more documents every day until the U.S. elections on November 8.
In today's release, the Clinton team at one point is grappling with an issue that came up recently - how to deal with questions surrounding the charges of sexual misconduct against Bill Clinton.
This is from a January email discussing campaign prep for Hillary Clinton:
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
There are also additional emails today that show frustration among some Clinton aides over how she has handled the issue of her emails while Secretary of State:
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Here's a few things to chew on as we go through the latest Wikileaks email dump:
1. Clinton's emails to President Obama. This matter continues to be the one that has raised the most eyebrows - circling around the reaction of Clinton aides to a New York Times story about the President emailing with Clinton - via her private server. "We need to clean this up. He has emails from her - they do not say state.gov," Cheryl Mills wrote in one email. The White House says the President did not know about Clinton's email server then, and isn't changing his story now:
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
2. Clinton Foundation insider drama. There has also been a lot of attention served on the operations of the Clinton Foundation as a result of the Wikileaks email releases. "Spokesmen for Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton and the foundation declined to comment," wrote the Washington Post today in a front page story about a fundraising memo released earlier in the week. "Donations to Foundation Vexed Hillary Clinton's Aides, Emails Show," roared the front page, lead story headline in the New York Times.
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
3. Trump more than happy to pound on Wikileaks. At just about every campaign stop, Trump rolls out something from Wikileaks to use against Hillary Clinton. "What about all the Wikileaks?" he said at a Kinston, North Carolina rally on Wednesday night, much to the approval of the crowd. "This Wikileaks is unbelievable, what we've learned about her and her people," Trump said earlier in Charlotte. "What they've said about her behind her back," as he uses some of the staff infighting to cast doubt on Clinton. As for who hacked Clinton, Trump still isn't pointing the finger at the Russians.
4. Why not any emails from the Trump campaign? Wikileaks was asked exactly that on Sunday by a Twitter user, and the answer was sort of interesting, as the internet group replied that the reason there are no leaks is that Trump doesn't use email.
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
But that answer falls a bit flat in this sense - Wikileaks doesn't have many emails that were actually sent by Hillary Clinton; the only ones we have seen are emails she sent to John Podesta and other campaign aides, or missives that were sent to her. The hack that gave Wikileaks this trove of emails was on Podesta, not on Clinton. If you check out the Tweets from Wikileaks these days, the group is campaigning hard against Clinton.
5. Some Clinton push back on Wikileaks. For the most part, the Clinton Campaign has said very little about Wikileaks, leading many to believe the complete veracity of the documents. But on Wednesday, a Clinton aide who has been focused on the Wikileaks matter unleashed a tweet storm directed at Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, again pressing the charge that Wikileaks is nothing but a stooge for Russian intelligence.
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
But for now, all the Clinton team can do is complain, and probably hope that nothing damaging comes out over the next 11 days.
One other note - Wikileaks still has not released any Podesta email from after March 21, 2016. Unless they are holding back, that means their talk of more up-to-date emails might be a public relations bluff.
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