With just one day left in the 2016 campaign, Wikileaks dropped the 33rd bundle of hacked emails from top Clinton aide John Podesta, as supporters of the group expressed the hope that sometime over the next 24 hours, there would be a big bombshell that might change the trajectory of the race for President.
Here is some of what I've seen in this latest release:
1. The first actual email from Hillary Clinton to President Obama. We've seen staff talk about Clinton writing President Obama back when she was Secretary of State, but this is the first time we've seen any part of an email that Clinton wrote to the President after that. In this email, dated November 7, 2014, Clinton forwards to John Podesta an email that she wrote to the President - calling him "Mr. P" - as she compliments him on a press conference. Later in the email, she forwarded him a link to a New York Times story about China; he was headed there the next week.
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
2. What about those other emails to President Obama? The Podesta emails have included some references to emails that Clinton wrote to the President while she was Secretary of State, and in recent days there again have mention of those by members of the Clinton High Command, as they discussed the Congressional investigation into Clinton's private email server. "Think we should hold emails to and from potus?" Podesta asked Cheryl Mills in one email. She indicates there was nothing of gravity in those electronic missives.
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
3. Wikileaks starts releasing other hacked emails. With the Podesta emails almost all now public, Wikileaks is trying to get some attention for other emails that it obtained from inside the Democratic National Committee. This latest hacked email trove totals 8,263 emails from staffers within the DNC. As you can see from the graphic, Wikileaks has a goal in mind.
4. Did CNN get questions from the DNC for Trump? That's what is being reported on Twitter and in some news media circles today. But when you actually go look at the emails that were hacked from the Democratic National Committee, I didn't find any email from CNN to DNC staffers asking for help with questions. Instead, the email exchanges are among a group of DNC staffers. Why were they putting together a lengthy list of questions? Maybe to use in a press release after the Trump interview on CNN? I don't know the answer - but nowhere in the new emails from inside the DNC is there is anything about sending it to Wolf Blitzer or someone at CNN for them to use, and nothing that indicates CNN asked for that input. Maybe I missed something. Maybe I'm too naive, because I would never ask for that type of help. There is an email where a DNC staffer says CNN is looking for questions for Cruz , so I can understand how people put that together - but there is nothing like that on Trump's interview.
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
5. Election Eve is here for Wikileaks. There have been a lot of listeners and readers who have confidently assured me over the last month that Wikileaks was going to drop a bomb on Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. They have certainly dropped a number of interesting items through the Podesta emails, but nothing that has resulted in Clinton running off the rails. As I wrote on Sunday, the clock is ticking on Wikileaks. Maybe that's why they released a whole new trove of DNC emails on Sunday.
