The Obama Administration communicated with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in early 2015 about how best to deal with the Clinton email scandal.
Emails that have been released indicate that the White House communications director contacted the State Department to ascertain whether Secretary of State John Kerry could evade queries about Clinton’s email setup. Additionally, a top State Department official told Clinton’s attorney that a department official hadn’t told Congress that Clinton had made a mistake using a private email account.
The emails were discovered by the Republican National Committee by using a Freedom of Information Act request.
Meredith McGehee, chief of policy, programs, and strategy at the nonpartisan advocacy group Issue One, asserted that the email exchange was legal because federal law permits members of the White House staff to become involved in political activity.
Clinton’s use of a private email server was reported by the New York Times on March 2, 2015; Clinton made her formal announcement of running for president on April 12, 2015. Ten days after the Times story, White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri emailed State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki, in an apparent reference to Kerry, “between us on the shows…think we can get this done so he is not asked about email.” Psaki responded, “Agree completely and working to crush on my end,” then added a day later, “Good to go on killing CBS idea … And we are going to hold on any other TV options just given the swirl of crap out there.” When Palmieri teased Psaki about using the terminology “swirl of crap,” Psaki answered, “Ha I mean—the challenging stories out there.”
Three days after the contact between the two women, Kerry appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation.
CBS spokeswoman Caitlin Conant said, “No subject was off-limits when this interview was arranged, as is the CBS News standard. CBS News’ State Department correspondent was in Egypt with Secretary John Kerry in the home stretch of the Iran nuclear deal negotiations and discussed policy issues of the day with him on this official trip.” State Department spokesman John Kirby stated of the communication between Palmieri and Psaki, “It is common practice for State Department and White House staffers to be in touch when agency officials are potentially conducting television interviews.”
Source: The Daily Wire
