Wikileaks releases over 2,000 emails from Clinton campaign chair

The internet whistleblowing group Wikileaks released over 2,000 emails involving Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The release comes the same day the State Department published 350 emails previously deleted from Clinton's private server.

At first inspection the emails date as far back as 2008 to 2016 and cover the gamut from the mundane like "Hillary Clinton’s Chipotle Order” to “Call with HRC” to “My position on the Iran deal” sent from Nancy Rotering to John Podesta.

Wikileaks said Podesta is a long-term associate of the Clintons and served as Bill Clinton’s chief of staff from 1998 to 2001.

Podesta served during Bill Clinton administration. Wikileaks warned on its 10th anniversary it would be releasing more emails.

In August, the AP revealed that while Donald Trump’s campaign chair Paul Manafort worked for Ukraine’s former government, he funneled some $2.2 million in cash to two Washington lobbying firms, including the Clinton-connected Podesta Group.

Ukraine’s current government, which goes back to the US-backed February 2014 coup that overthrew President Viktor Yanukovich, has claimed that Manafort had pocketed more than $12 million as a lobbyist and consultant for the “pro-Russian regime.”

Between 2012 and 2014, Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates steered at least $1.13 million in lobbying fees to the Podesta Group Inc. and another $1.07 million to Mercury LLC, AP reported on Thursday.

The money came from the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a nonprofit “governed by a board that initially included parliament members” from the ruling Party of Regions, according to AP.

The founder and chairman of the Podesta Group is Tony Podesta – brother of John Podesta, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff and current campaign chairman for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Mercury is headed by Vin Weber, a former congressman and adviser to 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

The State Department released 250 pages of Clinton’s emails, following a court order to release 360 pages last month.

Newly disclosed emails show top Obama administration officials in close contact with Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2015 about potential fallout from the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server.

According to those email disclosures, the White House was instructing Secretary of State John Kerry to avoid questions about Clinton’s email arrangements, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The emails were obtained by the Republican National Committee as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records of Clinton’s time in office.

Many of the newly released emails include the sending of news articles such as “World events test 'No Drama Obama'” on President Obama’s scheduled trip to Latin America in 2011 critical of his leadership over questions like the no-fly zone in Libya.

Others are just notes “Mendez called”, “Cheryl tried you back thru ops. Think you were trying to reach her a few hours ago,” and “I am on my way back.”

Among them is a 2001 discussion paper from Huma Abedin on thoughts on “post-Gaddafi Assistance & Governance” which talked about how to form a new Libya government, a new constitution, shore up oil contracts to revenue, understand past conflicts with the Gaddafi administration and its alleged failure to share hydrocarbon dollars, and the theft of private property from members of the monarchy.