Democratic National Committee interim-chair Donna Brazile denied Tuesday that she leaked a question to the Clinton campaign ahead of a town hall debate during the primaries.
“I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did,” the former CNN contributor said in a statement made available to the Washington Examiner. “As a longtime political activist with deep ties to our party, I supported all of our candidates for president. I often shared my thoughts with each and every campaign, and any suggestions that indicate otherwise are simply untrue.”
Brazile appears to have reached out to the Clinton camp in March to notify them of a certain question that would be asked at a town hall hosted by CNN, according to a set of emails published this week by WikiLeaks.
“From time to time I get the questions in advance,” Brazile, who was at the time pulling a paycheck from CNN as a political analyst, wrote on March 12 in an email to Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri.
“Here’s one that worries me about [Hillary Rodham Clinton],” she added in her email to Palmieri.
Brazile included in her email the following question:
DEATH PENALTY
19 states and the District of Columbia have banned the death penalty. 31 states, including Ohio, still have the death penalty. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, since 1973, 156 people have been on death row and later set free. Since 1976, 1,414 people have been executed in the U.S. That’s 11% of Americans who were sentenced to die, but later exonerated and freed. Should Ohio and the 30 other states join the current list and abolish the death penalty?
Palmieri responded, “Yes, it is one she gets asked about. Not everyone likes her answer but can share it.”
At the time of the email exchange, Brazile served as DNC’s vice chair under Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who stepped down later after emails surfaced suggesting various Democratic officials has conspired to ensure Clinton won the primary.
Clinton, who was at the time running a tough campaign against the surprisingly successful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was asked on March 13 about the death penalty during a CNN town hall in Columbus, Ohio.
On Tuesday, Brazile downplayed suggestions that she and others in the DNC colluded to hand Clinton the nomination, and she warned that the newly released emails are part of a larger effort by the Russians to hijack the 2016 election.
“[L]et’s get one thing straight. Our Intelligence Community has made it clear that the Russian government is responsible for the cyber attacks aimed at interfering with our election, and that WikiLeaks is part of that effort,” she said in her statement.
“This revelation should deeply trouble all Americans in both parties. And yet, Donald Trump continues to deny that Russia is behind these attempts to meddle with our electoral process and cheer on these efforts to undermine our democracy,” it added. “[W]e cannot bow down to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s wishes and allow foreign actors to try and divide our country with the hope of affecting the outcome of Election Day. There is too much at stake.”
The emails published this week by WikiLeaks reportedly come from the personal account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
