The New York Times sent a bombshell through Hillary Clinton’s close circle when it reported that she used a private email system during her tenure as secretary of state. That same day, March 2, 2015, Hillary campaign chair John Podesta told longtime aide Cheryl Mills the group needed to dump those emails:
It is unknown what he exactly meant by “dump.” It appears, though, he meant Lanny Davis, a close confidant and special counsel to President Clinton. Davis had pushed Hillary to release her emails.
Before he sent the Mills email, Podesta emailed aide Robby Mook and asked if he had “any idea of the depth of this story.” Mook claimed they “brought up the existence of emails in resrach (SIC) this summer but were told that everything was taken care of.”
However, five days later Mills sent an email to Podesta that the group needed “to clean this up” after President Obama said he learned about Hillary’s email system form the news like everyone else. Mills pointed out that Obama had emails from Hillary’s address and they did not come from a state.gov address.
Other emails released by Wikileaks have shown that the campaign did an extensive job to frame statements to steer Hillary from responsibility and keep the press in the shadows. Yet, some close to the campaign did not appreciate this approach, including Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress:
Tanden even went off on Podesta over the person “who told Hillary she could use a private email.” Tanden told Podesta that Hillary’s aides did not want to turn over anything because “they wanted to get away with it.” She insisted that if the archives request the emails, Hillary complies immediately and therefore avoids subpoenas. She also implied to Podesta that aid Cheryl Mills was behind the mess.
UPDATE 11-2-2016 (by WAJ): The Clinton campaign says the “dump them” language meant to release the emails, which of course was not done:
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