A top confidant to Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta suggested the person who told the former secretary of state she could use a private email should be “drawn and quartered,” according to a leaked email chain.

“Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email?” Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, asked Podesta in a July 2015 email. The email was one of thousands released by WikiLeaks from Podesta’s hacked Gmail account.

[dcquiz] “And has that person been drawn and quartered?” Tanden added. “Like whole thing is fucking insane.”

Clinton has said former Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested she use a private email, like he did, while serving as the U.S.’s top diplomat. Clinton also said she used a private email server for “convenience” and it was done in accordance with State Department guidelines. Though, she did say it was a “mistake” for her to use a private server.

Powell, however, criticized Clinton for trying to bring him into the email issue.

“Sad thing,” Powell wrote to a friend in a hacked email. “HRC could have killed this two years ago by merely telling everyone honestly what she had done and not tie me to it.”

“I told her staff three times not to try that gambit. I had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hampton’s [sic] party to get their attention. She keeps tripping into these ‘character’ minefields,” Powell wrote, adding he tried to meet with Clinton aide Cheryl Mills to settle the issue.

Follow Michael on Facebook and Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.