RE: Earned Media Update

From:jbenenson@bsgco.com To: jesse@jesseferguson.com, john.podesta@gmail.com, robbymook2015@gmail.com CC: Jim.Margolis@gmmb.com, john@algpolling.com, gruncom@aol.com, kristinakschake@gmail.com, jennifer.m.palmieri@gmail.com Date: 2015-03-16 00:17 Subject: RE: Earned Media Update

Love the FOIA idea Jesse – Could be a house member or a Senator -- To Joel’s original point about someone to raise this point about Gowdy releasing his email, David Brock did it already - http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/david-brock-top-hillary-clinton-ally-trey-gowdy-release-your-emails. I know we want Members, etc. to do it and will pursue but just flagging Brock did it. Also, Roy Blunt got challenged on it by Stephanopoulos on Sunday. The other question is whether there is a member who would introduce a bill to end the FOIA exemption for Members of Congress? They should be just as transparent as they’re demanding HRC be. It would put the focus on the Members keeping their emails private and would never actually pass. Better off with an H R C warrior. Who is her most fearsome House ally? JP --Sent from my iPad-- john.podesta@gmail.com<mailto:john.podesta@gmail.com> For scheduling: eryn.sepp@gmail.com<mailto:eryn.sepp@gmail.com> On Mar 15, 2015, at 8:50 PM, Robby Mook <robbymook2015@gmail.com<mailto:robbymook2015@gmail.com>> wrote: Do we think Cummings would do that? Certainly worth an ask. On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 8:48 PM, Joel Benenson <jbenenson@bsgco.com<mailto:jbenenson@bsgco.com>> wrote: Who is the right person to raise a simple question of the audacity of members of congress asking others to release their emails when they don’t ? Do we have some D who can squarely at Gowdy and demand he release all his emails for that last two years so people can see for themselves how politically motivated his investigations are? Hello All – Two quick things. 1) As you may have seen, ABC News<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clinton-emails-john-boehner-expected-announce-house/story?id=2964825> reporting that Speaker Boehner and Republicans in Congress are pledging more investigation into Secretary Clinton on emails. Below are the key points we’re sharing with Hill allies and TV surrogates this afternoon to get ahead of it and frame it as crazy GOP investigations AND GOP hypocrisy. We’re trying to push folks to go after them. 2) Everyone asked on our last Comm call for more offense against GOP. While we can’t do it perfectly before campaign is launched, we’ve had some success working with partners getting stories on Jeb and others. Clips attached. Thanks. We’ll try to keep these Earned Media Updates as often as we can. POINTS While it was permitted for Secretary Clinton to use one blackberry instead of two, looking back she’s said it would have been better for her to use two. At the time, this just didn’t seem like an issue. She’s asked State Department to publicly release all of roughly the 55,000 printed pages of emails she provided them. • Secretary Clinton was the first and only former Secretary to respond to the Department's request last year, and was the only one to provide her work emails. • Secretary Clinton has asked the Department to make her work related emails publicly available, and just like every other Cabinet Secretary and U.S. government official, she gets to choose to keep her personal emails private. • Charlie Cook wrote that: “This is the classic kind of inside-the-Beltway, process story that politicos and reporters get in a lather over, but that resonates very little with average voters." This isn’t about emails, it’s about Trey Gowdy furthering a partisan witch-hunt and Republicans in Congress distracting from their dangerous letter to the Iranian regime. There have been nine different Congressional committees that have held hearings on Benghazi . Secretary Clinton spent more than five hours testifying before the Senate and the House of Representatives and participated in briefings for Members. • Gowdy has been criticized for subpoenaing the State Department for emails already turned over to the Select Committee. • Gowdy and Republican have been caught numerous times trying to use the Benghazi investigation to fire up their base and raise money. Republican Hypocrisy on Emails. They want to hold former Secretary Clinton to a different standard than they’d hold themselves. Washington Post<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-governor-jeb-bush-used-e-mail-to-discuss-security-troop-movements/2015/03/14/0d7fae16-ca49-11e4-b2a1-bed1aaea2816_story.html>: “Jeb Bush used his private e-mail account as Florida governor to discuss security and military issues such as troop deployments to the Middle East and the protection of nuclear plants, according to a review of publicly released records.” [Washington Post, 3/15/15<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-governor-jeb-bush-used-e-mail-to-discuss-security-troop-movements/2015/03/14/0d7fae16-ca49-11e4-b2a1-bed1aaea2816_story.html>] Wall Street Journal<http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clintons-potential-gop-rivals-used-personal-email-accounts-1426205325>: “ But much like with Mrs. Clinton, the decision over which emails should be considered official and which remain private was made by Mr. Bush. It is unclear how many emails Mr. Bush withheld because he deemed them unrelated to state business. “He did exactly what Hillary did,” said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, a Florida-based government watchdog group. In turning over emails from his private account, she said, Mr. Bush and his staff “went through those emails and decided what were public-record emails and what wasn’t. […] The Wall Street Journal reports today: “When the Orlando Sentinel filed a public-records request for the emails from the private account about the legislative session, Mr. Rubio’s spokeswoman said they had been deleted.” (WSJ, 3/13/15<http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clintons-potential-gop-rivals-used-personal-email-accounts-1426205325>) Associated Press<http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268773/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=ErdmugXs>, “Several current and former governors who are considering a presidential run have found ways to delay or prevent public scrutiny of their communications while in office. That includes Republicans who have criticized their potential Democratic rival.” [AP, 3/7/15<http://www.thestate.com/2015/03/07/4030910/beyond-clinton-many-2016-hopefuls.html>] Roll Call<http://www.rollcall.com/news/Clinton-Controversy-Highlights-Gaps-in-Email-Rules-for-Members-240600-1.html>, “But the legislative branch, which has effectively exempted itself from the Freedom of Information Act, can keep its emails and other correspondence hidden for 20 years or more — and some forever.” [Roll Call, 3/10/15<http://www.rollcall.com/news/Clinton-Controversy-Highlights-Gaps-in-Email-Rules-for-Members-240600-1.html>] Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was caught by ABC News<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-jason-chaffetzs-business-card-lists-gmail-address/story?id=29368587> with a personal email address – a gmail account – on his Congressional business card. [ABC, 3/3/15<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-jason-chaffetzs-business-card-lists-gmail-address/story?id=29368587>] In fact, people<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/david-brock-top-hillary-clinton-ally-trey-gowdy-release-your-emails> have called on Trey Gowdy to release his email if he wants to oversee this investigation. [MSNBC, 3/11/15<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/david-brock-top-hillary-clinton-ally-trey-gowdy-release-your-emails>]