Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s hacked emails shows a lobbyist attended a campaign event and donated $5,000 while asking for a meeting with Valerie Jarrett.
A lobbyist appears to have attended an event Podesta invited him to, according to an Excel spreadsheet attached to an email exchange Dec. 31, 2015. Lobbyist Luke Albee previously promised to attend the event and give $5,000. He asked Podesta to help arrange a meeting with Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, in a June 2015 email exchange.
The email subject is, “FW: Can u give us the donor list please from Leahy event?” In the spreadsheet, Albee, a lobbyist on U.S.-Cuba policy issues, is shown to have attended the fundraiser, likely for Democratic Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy.
Albee, senior adviser for Engage Cuba, previously emailed Podesta promising $5,000 to attend “the Leahy event.”
“I think our new pro-engagement pac can contribute $5 k to the event,” wrote Albee. In response to Albee’s offer, Podesta replied, “I can call her” in reference to Jarrett.
According to its website, Engage Cuba “is the only organization whose primary focus is U.S.-Cuba legislative advocacy.” The organization is “a 501(c)(4) bipartisan non-profit whose funds are entirely dedicated to our advocacy efforts.”
At the time of the event, Albee’s employment was listed on the attached guest list as being with the U.S. Senate. Albee’s work affiliation on the Excel sheet raises questions. Before attending the event, the lobbyist already asked Podesta to help him get Jarrett to meet with him.
Months later, Tina Stoll, president of Campaign Finance Consultants (CFC), followed up Jan. 5 by sending an Excel guest list to Podesta and his sibling, super-lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder and chairman of Podesta Group. On her LinkedIn page, Stoll lists “Patrick Leahy (D-VT)” as a CFC client.
Albee previously worked for Leahy from 1993 to 2004, according to his bio on the Engage Cuba website. Leahy has long advocated for the normalization of ties between the U.S. and Cuba. The Obama administration — through executive order — normalized ties between the U.S. and Cuba in December 2014.
The emails come from the 17th tranche of hacked Podesta emails from WikiLeaks. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have linked the hacks to Russia.
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