Archive for the ‘Hillary Clinton’ Category

Hillary Clinton enlists former campaign staffers for political group: Report – Washington Examiner

Hillary Clinton has hired two former aides from her 2016 presidential campaign to join "Onward Together," a political action committee working to advance the platform that the former secretary of state campaigned on, according to a report on Friday.

Onward Together, which was started earlier this year, has a slogan that reads "resist, insist, persist, enlist."

Emmy Ruiz and Adam Parkhomenko will be joining the PAC, after having performed key roles during Clinton's campaign. Ruiz served as state director in Nevada during the primary and Colorado during the election; Parkhomenko served as Clinton's director of grassroots engagement.

The Onward Together co-founder, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, confirmed to BuzzFeed that the two would be joining the PAC.

"She's [Ruiz] moving us right on task, which is what we really needed," Dean told BuzzFeed.

Parkhomenko and Ruiz will reportedly work alongside big name Clinton aides such as former campaign vice chair Huma Abedin, finance director Dennis Cheng, and press secretary Nick Merrill.

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Hillary Clinton enlists former campaign staffers for political group: Report - Washington Examiner

Mike Pence Just Turned Over His Personal Emails, but Trump Is Still Focused on Hillary Clinton – Newsweek

President Donald Trump won't stop talking about Hillary Clinton's emails. It's been some 38 weeks since the Republican defeated her in the 2016 election, but as recently as Thursday night he was still railing about the Democrat's use of a private email server while secretary of state.

"What the prosecutors should be looking at are Hillary Clinton's 33,000 deleted emails," Trump said in West Virginia just hours after news broke that special counsel Robert Mueller had impaneled a grand jury for his ongoing probe into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia.

Related: Mike Pence will soon be president with help from Spicer, Priebus, Democrat Maxine Waters tweets

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But for all of Trump's comments about Clinton, he hasn't spoken much about a more recent development in an email controversy a lot closer to the White House: his vice president's.

The Indianapolis Star reported Friday that authoritiesfinally have all of the state-related messages Mike Pence sent from his personal AOL accounts while he was governor. In March, Pence was found to have used private email to discussofficial businessthe same thing for which Trump has lambasted Clintonat which point it was also revealed that his accounts had been hacked. At that time, Pence gave some of his emails to the state as hard copies. As of late June, all of his records had been sent over digitally.

"Our office is now in the process of reviewing the records, and we anticipate being in a position to provide copies of records that are responsive to pending [public record]requests soon," a spokeswoman for the current governor, Eric Holcomb, told the Star.

Pence and his legal team gave only the state messages that had to do with his role as governor, which is similar to what Clinton did in 2015. She said she got rid of the oft-mentioned 33,000 emails because she thought they involved only personal matters. But unlike Clinton,The Washington Post reported earlier this year, Pence was legally allowed to have a private account. He also didn't use it exclusively, as she did. Pence has insisted "there's no comparison whatsoever between Hillary Clinton's practice" and his own.

Trump, for his part, has continued to publicly discuss Clinton's emails, even referencing the scandal while talking about son Donald Trump Jr.'s decision to release messages that confirmed he met with a Russian lawyer in 2016 in hopes of getting damaging information about Clinton.

"My son Donald openly gave his e-mails to the media & authorities whereas CrookedHillary Clintondeleted (& acid washed) her 33,000 e-mails!" Trump tweeted July 22.

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Mike Pence Just Turned Over His Personal Emails, but Trump Is Still Focused on Hillary Clinton - Newsweek

Obama admin. reportedly ordered FBI to monitor ‘fake news’ about Hillary Clinton on Election Day – TheBlaze.com

The Obama administration reportedly ordered the FBI to monitor fake news, presumably from Russia to hurt Hillary Clintons campaign and help the Trump campaign, on Election Day last year, according to a new report.

CNN reported Friday that dozens of FBI agents and intelligence analysts gathered in a command center in the FBIs Washington D.C., headquarters on Election Day to monitor the cyberspace, including social media, for fake news about Clintons campaign that was thought to be part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

From CNN:

That included analysts monitoring cyber threats, after months of mounting Russian intrusions targeting every part of the US political system, from political parties to policy think-tanks to state election systems.

FBI analysts had identified social media user accounts behind stories, some based overseas, and the suspicion was that at least some were part of a Russian disinformation campaign, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

According to the report, teams at the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence held conference calls with a team in the White Houses Situation Room every three hours to provide updates on any incident.

The monitoring, CNN reports, made the FBI uncomfortable, given the First Amendments protections on free speech even speech that may be false.

We were right on the edge of Constitutional legality, a source told CNN. We were monitoring news.

Some of the stories that raised eyebrows for FBI agents were fake news stories about Clintons health, according to a CNN reporter who spoke on Jake Tappers show Friday. In the end, CNN reports there were only minor hiccups in far-flung parts of the country.

Russia was a big topic of discussion in the months leading up to the election and ever since over allegations Russian hackers were leading a disinformation campaign against Clinton in order to boost Trump to the White House.

Going into Election Day, there was a fear that hackers would tamper with voting machines, though that never happened. And despite a possible disinformation campaign against Clinton, its not clear if Russian interference altered the outcome of the election in any way.

Currently, FBI special counsel Robert Mueller is leading the Department of Justices investigation into Russian interference, a probe that includes an investigation into Trumps campaign, which has been accused of having inappropriate contacts with Russian operatives.

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Obama admin. reportedly ordered FBI to monitor 'fake news' about Hillary Clinton on Election Day - TheBlaze.com

Internet post misleads by saying witness will testify specifically against Hillary Clinton – PolitiFact (blog)

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., before an Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections hearing on July 27, 2017. (Getty Images)

A story online that says a witness will speak out against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of a larger investigation into her actions is a muddled mix of real developments misleadingly retold.

"Breaking: A witness will testify against Hillary Clinton," read the headline on a July 30, 2017, post on CoffeeBreakForYou.com. Facebook users flagged the story as being potentially fabricated as part of the social media sites efforts to combat fake news.

The post said that Clinton would be "held accountable for the many wrongdoings she has been charged with," although it never specifies what those charges may be. It said President Donald Trump had tasked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate Clintons ties to Russia.

Thats where the "key witness" comes in.

"Glenn Simpson has been friends with the Clinton family for many years," the post read. "Not coincidentally, he is also a co-founder of the firm Fusion GPS that disseminated the widely debunked fake news dossier containing over-the-top stories about Donald Trump going to Russian hotels."

The CoffeeBreakForYou.com article said the Senate Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed Simpson. The post asked readers whether they thought Simpson "will share crucial information about how Hillary attempted to frame Donald Trump."

The story appears to have originated as a July 30 post on Conservative101.com. The byline on the post was Christopher Reynolds. We attempted to reach Conservative101.com through the websites contact form (the only method of contact available) but didnt get a response.

The story isn't fake in the sense that it makes up all its content, but it does spin things to the point of being misleading or incorrect.The most notable issues are whetherClinton is really being investigated, and for what reasons the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to talk to Simpson.

Trump has publicly criticized Sessions for failing to investigate Clinton for deleting emails from her private server and for allegedly getting information from Ukraine during her presidential campaign.

The Justice Department has not publicly acknowledged an investigation into Clinton, although the Senate Judiciary Committee has demanded the agency disclose if its investigating the Ukrainian allegations. The Justice Department has until Aug. 3 to respond. House Republicans have requested FBI documents into the campaign investigation and have asked for a special counsel for a Clinton probe.

The Senate committee has been looking into the extent of Russian influence on the 2016 election.

Simpson is a real person. He is a former journalist who is a founding partner of opposition research firm Fusion GPS. Simpson was initially being subpoenaed for a hearing, but not explicitly to expose Clinton. The committee wanted to compel him to discuss details of his companys Trump dossier, which became public in January 2017.

Simpson wanted to protect the Democratic-leaning client who hired Fusion GPS to create the Trump dossier, according to the Daily Beast.

Simpson had originally intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination, but struck a deal in which he would provide a transcribed interview. The Senate Judiciary Committee agreed and withdrew its subpoena.

We couldnt find any proof that Simpson was "friends with the Clinton family," although the New York Post reported that Fusion GPS was "actually an opposition-research group for Democrats, and the founders, who are more political activists than journalists, have a pro-Hillary Clinton, anti-Trump agenda."

But trying to protect the identity of a Clinton ally who paid for opposition research against Trump is not the same as testifying against Clinton.

In addition to the Trump opposition report, Fusion GPS also had reportedly worked to ease sanctions against Russia, through ties with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. Shes the same lawyer Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had met in a controversial and previously undisclosed 2016 meeting.

Our ruling

Bloggers said, "A witness will testify against Hillary Clinton."

The post used details from several real news events in a way that would lead readers to draw some unproven conclusions. The article said that a founding partner in an opposition research firm was being called to testify against Clinton.

Simpson was being asked to discuss details about a dossier filled with unsavory (and largely unsubstantiated) details about Trump as part of an investigation into Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election.

We rate this statement False.

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Internet post misleads by saying witness will testify specifically against Hillary Clinton - PolitiFact (blog)

Hillary Clinton Hires Two Former Campaign Aides For "Resistance" PAC – BuzzFeed News

Hillary Clinton has hired two political operatives from her 2016 presidential campaign to help manage Onward Together, the project she founded this spring with former governor Howard Dean to fund and support a coalition of Democratic groups led by activists and organizers.

The new additions, Emmy Ruiz and Adam Parkhomenko, held central roles on Clintons campaign: Ruiz delivered key victories as state director in Nevada during the primary and in Colorado during the general election; Parkhomenko worked in headquarters as her director of grassroots engagement before moving to the Democratic National Committee. Both served on Clintons first presidential bid in 2008.

Dean, the Onward Together co-founder, confirmed the recent hires on Friday.

The group, registered in May as a 501c4 organization with an affiliated super PAC, is working to establish a small but diverse cooperative of about 10 to 12 grassroots efforts, each one focused on a different area of the energy and activism set off by Donald Trumps election and presidency. Dean said they are still in the process vetting groups to add to the coalition, which already includes organizations such as Swing Left, Emerge America, and Run For Something.

Ruiz, last with Tom Perezs successful campaign for DNC chair, has been working to systemize and add structure to that process, steering the process and guiding next steps, while also working the collection of outside groups.

Shes moving us right on task, which is what we really needed, said Dean.

Parkhomenko, a longtime Clinton loyalist who founded the PAC Ready For Hillary in early 2013, will focus on the larger political landscape for both Onward Together and, tangentially, Clintons activity on behalf of Democrats, looking at the question of how, when, and where she can be helpful to candidates in upcoming races.

Both former campaign aides will be working as consultants.

That Clinton play a role at all in electoral politics after her failed 2016 campaign is a source of debate among Democrats, some of whom have said that the former candidate needs to step back, clearing the way for new voices in politics. Clinton, however, has made it clear she is receding entirely into private life: She has made headlines for pointed remarks about Trump and Russia and has a memoir coming out next month that aides have described as a candid, at times raw account of the Democratic primary fight and her race against Trump.

Clinton has received at least one request to campaign on behalf of Phil Murphy, the Democratic candidate for governor in New Jersey, according to a Democrat close the campaign there. In the 2018 midterm elections, there will be races in 23 congressional districts that Clinton carried at the top of the ticket but Republicans held down-ballot.

Ruiz and Parkhomenko, who both started their work at Onward Together this summer, will join a small core team that includes Dean, the former Vermont governor and DNC chair, along with Judith McHale, an undersecretary under Clinton at the State Department, and Amy Rao, a Silicon Valley businesswoman and a longtime supporter and donor. The aides in Clintons New York office, including former campaign vice chair Huma Abedin, finance director Dennis Cheng, and press secretary Nick Merrill, are also working on the project.

Dean and McHale in particular have been working on vetting groups, which are expected to submit a budget for funding and provide a full account of their activity and management setup.

Clinton and her aides have also spent the summer on her new memoir, What Happened, which comes out in September and will be followed by a book tour.

Some of the fundraising work has already started, but its been slow going because weve all been so busy, said Dean. Now that weve got some staff its really terrific. Somebody had to have the big picture, and that would now be Emmy and Adam."

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Hillary Clinton Hires Two Former Campaign Aides For "Resistance" PAC - BuzzFeed News