Emails show Clinton campaign coordinated with State Dept. official before email revelation
(FOX)- Newly released emails appear to show a State Department official coordinating with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign before her use of a private email to conduct government business was revealed.
Emails from campaign chairman John Podesta show that the state official provided Clinton aides with the agency’s official response to a New York Times reporter in advance of the paper’s March 2015 report that Clinton had used a private email account to conduct business while serving as secretary of state.
WikiLeaks released the hacked emails Wednesday in part of a massive trove of emails disclosed by the whistleblowing website. The site has released new Podesta emails on a daily basis since October. WikiLeaks has indicated it intends to leak emails stolen from Podesta’s account every day through the election.
In a March 1, 2015 email, State Department press aide Lauren Hickey told Clinton’s spokesman Nick Merrill and two other advisers that then-State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki had “just cleared” a reply to the Times. Hickey provided the agency’s response to the Clinton aides and also appeared to agree to a change requested by the campaign, saying: “Yes on your point re records – done below.” It is not clear what specific change was requested and made.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that the department would not comment on alleged leaked documents. But he said the department’s effort to “provide accurate information to the media” about Clinton’s tenure at the agency has “at times required communicating with her representatives to ensure accuracy.”