Chelsea Clinton set up multiple email accounts under various aliases while working with the Clinton Foundation, one of which she used to solidify donations from left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer, according to leaked emails published Thursday.
“Tom may be interested in supporting the CF (Clinton Foundation),” Chelsea, who sits on the board of the Clinton Foundation, said in a 2012 memo to Democratic operative John Podesta. She was referring to ways in which her mother’s charity could garner monetary and in-kind support from Steyer, a major Democratic moneyman and a former colleague of Podesta’s.
Chelsea, the only daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, used the fake name “Diane Reynolds” during her correspondence with Hillary ‘s right-hand man, among other members of the former secretary of state’s presidential campaign.
The hacked emails also show that Chelsea created another email account under the name “Anna James,” which appears to be a New York University email address. She has served as the Assistant Vice-Provost for the Global Network University of New York University since 2010.
The daughter of the Democratic nominee has used the name “Diane Reynolds” in the past — including when she checks into hotels — but it has resurfaced recently thanks to WikiLeaks. The recent leaks show that Chelsea was actually using the name as a tool during her work with the Clinton Foundation.
Podesta, for his part, condemned the hacked emails Monday, telling reporters he doesn’t know where the unauthentic emails came from. The “Diane Reynolds” memo was one of 4,000 emails that have been leaked over the course of the election season.
The former hedge fund manager for Farallon Capital has become a world-beater in the world of Democratic politics.
Steyer’s political action committee, NextGen Climate, for instance, spent about $20.7 million in independent expenditures in 2014, mostly propping up Democrats and environmental positions. He has spent more than $13 million so far this election year, according to OpenSecrets.org. Steyer has donated about $40 million to Democrats so far this election season.
The memos indicate Chelsea was fishing for ways to get Steyer on board the Clinton Foundation.
“Please let me know how I can help f/u. Bari can give you more color Dennis on Jim and common sense and the new organization his brother Tom is helping fund (you may remember Tom from mom’s campaign as he was a big supporter of hers),” Chelsea wrote, referencing Steyer’s brother, Jim Steyer, and the work the environmentalist billionaire has done for Clinton in the past.
Jim Steyer was included in the email chain, and responded to Chelsea’s initial email by suggesting that his brother was definitely “interested in chatting about collaboration with the Clinton Foundation. They then attempted to schedule a time when Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and presumably Chelsea Clinton could get together to discuss donations.
The email is perhaps an example of the Clinton camp’s attempt to find legal ways to wrangle Steyer’s help for Clinton without violating campaign finance laws. Election rules bar coordination between political campaigns and outside groups that do independent expenditure work.
“Assume he can’t host an event with her or one of us,” Podesta wrote in another leaked email in April 2015. “Correct?”
“Not easily. If important to do so, let me know and we can come up with our best options (which may not be good),” responded Marc Elias, a lawyer at the firm Perkins Coie. Elias is the campaign’s legal council.
The Chelsea memo was clearly part of an overarching effort to woo the former hedge fund manager into sinking millions of dollars into the Clinton Foundation.
Dennis Cheng, who serves as Clinton’s national finance director, seriously considered in 2015 offering Steyer an official title to entice him to prop up their candidate’s campaign, according to leaked emails published Tuesday.
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