hillary-clinton

Clinton Aide Who Avoided FOIA Insists He Didn’t Want to Avoid FOIA When He Wrote “I Want to Avoid FOIA” 

J.K. Trotter · 12/17/15 10:20AM

Former State Department official and longtime Hillary Clinton operative Philippe Reines has repeatedly stated that his email practices at State were aboveboard—even though he was caught lying about using a personal email address to conduct official government business. But new emails obtained by Gawker show that on at least one occasion, Reines discussed skirting the federal open-records law known as the Freedom of Information Act. According to the emails, he told two reporters,“I want to avoid FOIA.” Reines’ attorney dismisses the comment as a joke—but if it was, it was of the funny-because-it’s-true variety.

Jeb Bush's Last Resort: Donald Trump Is a Clinton Plant

Jordan Sargent · 12/08/15 05:45PM

Jeb Bush has suffered at the hands of Donald Trump, who has taken special glee in taunting all of his weaker opponents in the Republican field, but especially so the one-time presumed frontrunner from a previously untouchable political dynasty. Today, Jeb revealed what might be his final attempt at felling the orange beast: perpetuating the conspiracy theory that Trump was planted in the GOP race by the Clinton family.

Martin O'Malley Asks Democrats to Memorize His Face In Case Hillary Dies 

Allie Jones · 12/01/15 03:10PM

Martin O’Malley is now campaigning to be Democrats’ “second choice” for president, which isn’t a thing. But the former governor of Maryland announced his futile goal today in a meeting with House Dems, who have mostly all said they support Hillary Clinton, in an apparent attempt to remind them that he still exists.

Hillary Clinton Again Invokes 9/11 to Explain Her Wall Street Fundraising

Alex Pareene · 12/01/15 01:57PM

At a Democratic presidential debate in Iowa last month, Hillary Clinton was challenged to account for the fact that a large proportion of her campaign fundraising haul has come from the financial sector. She responded with a non sequitur about 9/11. Asked to elaborate, she seemed to argue that her popularity in the finance sector is primarily a result of personal relationships developed in the aftermath of that tragedy in lower Manhattan.

Hillary: I Want to Believe (That I Can Avoid Difficult Questions)

Ashley Feinberg · 11/24/15 04:01PM

Hillary Clinton spoke at an event in Boulder, Colorado earlier today, where she happily responded to a question about aliens from outer space. Are they real? Sure! What are their elections like? Some things are best left unknown.

Emails Show Politico’s Mike Allen Promised Positive Coverage of Chelsea Clinton

J.K. Trotter · 11/24/15 02:15PM

Few journalists are more thoroughly connected to Washington’s power elite than Politico’s Chief White House correspondent Mike Allen. But as newly released emails between the veteran reporter and a former State Department official show, Allen’s coveted access sometimes comes at the cost of his own credibility—as well as Politico’s reputation as an adversarial news outlet.

Hillary Clinton Explains Why Wall Street Loves Her: 9/11

Alex Pareene · 11/14/15 11:18PM

It is a fact that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, like her previous political campaigns, is funded in large part by donations from the finance industry. Bernie Sanders has criticized her for this—or, at least, he has pointed this out, critically. At tonight’s inconveniently scheduled Democratic debate on CBS, Sanders was asked to reiterate that criticism. Clinton’s response was, well, memorable.

What Kind of Dog Is Each Presidential Candidate? 

Allie Jones · 11/06/15 03:45PM

There are only several hundred more days until the 2016 presidential election—have you picked your favorite candidate yet? No? Well, perhaps it would help to imagine each one of them, who are all so confident that they should be the next person to run this country into the ground, as a dog.

A Wild Idea: Support the Candidate You Agree With 

Hamilton Nolan · 11/06/15 03:20PM

So far, America’s most powerful labor unions are more likely to endorse Hillary Clinton than Bernie Sanders, even though Sanders’ beliefs are more pro-labor than Clinton’s. This is dumb. And fearful.

Ben Affleck Knew Hillary Clinton's Secret Email Address

Sam Biddle · 10/30/15 04:18PM

While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, many of her own governmental colleagues were unaware that she used an off-the-books email server with a secret address. But Ben Affleck apparently knew.

Hamilton Nolan · 10/28/15 02:25PM

The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column today politely scoffs at Hillary Clinton’s assertion that her husband only signed the anti-gay marriage Defense of Marriage Act as a “defensive action” against a possible Constitutional Amendment that would have been even worse. Sure.

State Department: Actually, We Have 90,000 Philippe Reines Documents

J.K. Trotter · 10/23/15 04:18PM

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of State have just notified Gawker Media that the agency is once again upgrading its estimate of the number of emails exchanged between news reporters and Philippe Reines, the former State Department spokesperson and multi-purpose consigliere of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As you may recall: In 2013, in response to our Freedom of Information Act request seeking those emails, State officials asserted, bizarrely, that no such emails existed. In August of this year—five months after Gawker filed a lawsuit against State—that estimate increased to 17,855 emails.