DNC Staffers Colluded With Politico Reporters: 'No Fingerprints Attached'

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In the past, many have accused the national parties of secretly colluding with journalists. Now, we have two more pieces of evidence.

The evidence: an email in which a Democratic National Committee staffer and a Politico reporter discussed getting Bernie Sanders' committee members "with no fingerprints attached," and one in which a different Politico reporter privately sends an article to the DNC before publishing.

As has been reported in multiple news outlets, WikiLeaks released a large trove of emails from Democratic National Committee staffers yesterday.

There were several interesting nuggets within the emails. Among these were that DNC officials "plotted to expose Bernie Sanders as atheist," and that "DNC staffers mocked the Bernie Sanders Campaign."

"No Fingerprints Attached"

One nugget that has been underreported was the collusion between the DNC and journalists.

In one email, Politico reporter Daniel Strauss requested information on committee appointments made by Sanders, knowing that that information was supposed to be confidential:

Hey

So we want to see the list of committee appointments the Sanders Folks submitted just to verify it was mostly staffers and ineligible figures. That possible with no fingerprints attached? Sent from my iPhone

DNC staffer Luis Miranda responded by officially denying the request but hinting at how to get the information "off the record:"

Off the record, you should request it from them, we don't divulge private communications from our candidates. However, since they raised it as an issue it would be surprising if they didn't send it to you.

Meanwhile, Miranda also discussed these committee appointments with the Wall Street Journal, in this email:

On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 3:53 PM, Miranda, Luis [email removed] wrote:

> On background, it's true her appointments to the 3 standing committees
> were made. Of the 187 on those committees, 162 will reflect the votes they
> each got - and in fact, each campaign selects the people who will represent
> their campaigns on those committees. The 25 appointments for each of the
> three at the Chair's discretion were already made in January, ratified by
> the DNC Executive Committee, and with the engagement of both campaigns.
>
>
>
> Off the record, the only reason the Sanders camp even sent that letter is
> that she was courteous enough to reach out to give both camps
> representation, but the appointments - the 15 to the drafting committee -
> are at the Chair's discretion. Again, she reached out to be inclusive.

Sharing Before Publishing

In another email, Politico reporter Ken Vogel sends a story to the DNC staffer Mark Paustenbach "ahead of time/before it goes to his editors as long as [he] didn't share it:"

Vogel gave me his story ahead of time/before it goes to his editors as long as I didn't share it. Let me know if you see anything that's missing and I'll push back.


Mark Paustenbach
National Press Secretary &
Deputy Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
[phone and email removed]



Begin forwarded message:


From: Ken Vogel [email removed]
Date: April 30, 2016 at 5:34:42 PM EDT
To: "Paustenbach, Mark" [email removed]
Subject: per agreement ... any thoughts appreciated


In the days before Hillary Clinton launched an unprecedented big-money fundraising vehicle with state parties last summer, she vowed "to rebuild our party from the ground up," because she proclaimed "when state parties are strong, we win."


[email continues]

Other journalists from MSNBC and CBS have also been referenced in the leaked emails. Their emails can be searched here.

This article was updated after posting for formatting issues.