Elections

LEAKS: Podesta’s Friend Admits Close Work With Super-PAC Could Be Illegal

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Blake Neff Reporter
Font Size:

Newly-leaked emails from John Podesta’s hacked account shows him making a flippant response to worries about a Super-PAC illegally coordinating with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The emails, released by the online hacktivist group Wikileaks, show a brief exchange between Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, and Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden. Tanden is a friend and frequent confidant of Clinton. In the exchange, Tanden forwards Podesta a Washington Post article about Correct the Record (CTR), a liberal Super-PAC created by David Brock.

CTR, the article said, planned to coordinate with the Clinton campaign to an unprecedented degree. It is illegal for Super-PACs to collude with campaigns, but Brock believed he could skirt this rule by focusing CTR’s efforts online, relying on a Federal Elections Commission ruling that posts made online for free do not count as “campaign expenditures.”

Tanden apparently thought this approach was worrisome. (RELATED: Is Correct The Record Suppressing Wikileaks Emails?)

“I’m not their biggest fan,” she said. “But this does seem shady.”

Podesta only provided a short, flippant response to Tanden’s concerns.

“Brock $ machine!” he said.

Brock’s ability as a “cash machine” provided limited comfort to Tanden, who bluntly said CTR could be breaking the law.

“That’s fine,” she said. “But skirting if not violating law doesn’t help her IMHO.”

Send tips to blake@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.