A government watchdog is questioning whether Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign illegally coordinated with the head of pro-Democratic political action committees this weekend to downplay the ongoing scandal surrounding her private email server.
“Boy, what a coincidence,” Tom Fitton, president of the government watchdog Judicial Watch, told the Washington Examiner’s media desk, referring to a series of strikingly similar tweets published by Clinton surrogates.
“Seeing a PAC send out same tweet as a campaign raises questions about coordination. They’re not supposed to be talking to each other and coordinating,” he added.
It is illegal under Federal Election Commission regulations for a campaign to coordinate directly with political action committees.
In a “Meet the Press” interview that aired Sunday in NBC News, Clinton addressed a series of campaign issues, including her use of an unauthorized private email server when she worked at the State Department.
“It is like a drip, drip, drip,” the Democratic frontrunner said of her ongoing email woes, adding that she wants to “be as transparent as possible.”
Clinton explained Sunday that she used the unsecured server because it was a leftover from the system former President Bill Clinton used after he left the White House, suggesting that it was simply easier than getting set up with official State accounts.
“[I]t was sitting there in the basement,” she said. “It was not any trouble at all. I know there are a lot of people who are questioning that, but the fact is that it was there.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a criminal probe into whether the former secretary of state and her staff sent or received classified state secrets. But for Clinton’s surrogates, the case is as good as closed, and it would behoove the 2016 Democratic candidate’s critics to “move on.”
“Cannot wait to see [Clinton] on #MTP this a.m.! Sounds like she answered every email question ever. Now, time to move on!” former Michigan governor and Clinton supporter Jennifer Granholm said of the interview before it had even aired.
Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change as well as the pro-Democratic Super PAC American Bridge, added, “Questions on [Hillary Clinton’s] emails on this morning’s [“Meet the Press”]? Asked and answered. Time to move on.”
Clinton campaign spokeswoman, Karen Finney, said, “Questions on [Clinton’s] emails on this morning’s #MTP? Asked and answered. Time to move on.”
“[Clinton] responds to questions about emails on #MTP. Good answers, time to move on to substance please,” said Buffy Wick, a former Obama administration staffer.
Lastly, on Monday, CNN contributor and Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen said, “Questions on [Clinton’s] emails on yesterday’s #MTP? Asked and answered. Time to move on. Please.”
That these notes all include the suggestion that Clinton’s critics “move on” has drawn further scrutiny from her critics. For Fitton, the similarities between Finney’s and Woodhouse’s tweets would seem to suggest that someone in the Clinton camp is coordinating with a member of a PAC.
“It sure looks like they’re working together,” he told the Examiner. “It’s incumbent up on the individuals involved to tell us how they did this.”
Judicial Watch has reported at length on the server scandal, and has contributed regularly to the story with a steady release of State Department documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. Fitton added that Clinton’s surrogates’ remarks this weekend only raise additional questions.
“What do they know about the emails? What does Finney know about emails?” he asked, noting that the FBI is still engaged in a criminal investigation over the matter. “Are they witnesses? Where’s the campaign getting its information? Where’s that information coming from?”
“Are they doing their own investigation? Does the Clinton campaign have all the emails?” he continued.
Though it is illegal for a campaign to coordinate directly with a PAC, the Washington Post reported earlier this year that certain pro-Clinton groups may have found a way to skirt these and similar election laws.
Correct the Record, an offshoot of American Bridge, announced this year that it would “work in coordination with the Clinton campaign as a stand-alone super PAC,” the Post reported.
“That befuddled many campaign finance experts, who noted that super PACs, by definition, are political committees that solely do independent expenditures, which cannot be coordinated with a candidate or political party,” the reported added. “Several said the relationship between the campaign and the super PAC would test the legal limits.”
Officials with Correct the Record, which is headed by Woodhouse, said they’re relying on an exemption in the way “coordinated communications” is defined.
Groups like Judicial Watch, meanwhile, are unimpressed with what appears to be a coordinated effort by Team Clinton and pro-Clinton PACs to stamp down questions over her use of a private server.
“[Clinton’s team has] been caught lying about when she was using these emails. The campaign is a fount of disinformation,” Fitton told the Examiner. “They’ve ben caught time and time again putting out misinformation.”
Neither the Clinton campaign nor spokespersons for Woodhouse’s political groups responded to the Examiner’s request for comment.
