WikiLeaks on Tuesday provided fresh evidence the Hillary Clinton’s campaign wanted nothing to do with the looming fight over trade. Her campaign chairman at one point wanted to “dodge” it, according to emails.

It is no secret that the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership put the Democratic candidate in a tough spot. As secretary of state, she repeatedly had praised the 12-nation trading pact, going so far as to call it the “gold standard” of trade deals.

“My impression of the Podesta approach was more of a dodge than what you have here.”

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But as it became clear that Sen. Bernie Sanders had tapped into populist angst on the Left, Clinton sought to distance herself from it without publicly repudiating President Obama — a chief proponent of the deal.

In May 2015, The Huffington Post’s political reporter Amanda Terkel emailed campaign Chairman John Podesta to report that people at a Democracy Alliance meeting had said that when asked about the TPP, he said, “Make it go away.”

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The trade issue came up again and again as aides struggled for a winning response. On April 11, 2015, Clinton foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan alerted the staff that Obama adviser Brian Deese thought it was 90 percent to 95 percent likely that a bill giving Obama authority to negotiate the TPP would come up in Congress the following week.

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Sullivan offered some suggestions for how Clinton could respond: “But I don’t believe we should give an open-ended fast track to the next president. I hope I’m the next president, and I think I should have to justify fast track to the new Congress. And if a Republican is the next president, I certainly don’t want to give fast track to them now — heck, that’s why I voted against fast track for President Bush.”

Campaign Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri responded, “Boo! My impression of the Podesta approach was more of a dodge than what you have here.”

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She wrote that if Clinton weighed in on the length of the trade-negotiation bill, it would be viewed as “passive opposition.” She suggested a conference call on the issue.

Sullivan replied that Clinton could not simply avoid the issue.

“This is a[n] alternative if we can’t do pure dodge. Which I don’t think we can,” he wrote. “It says, I want him to have negotiating authority but not republicans. I’ve never supported republicans getting negotiating authority. (And if I’m elected I’m prepared to make my own case.)”

He added, “I don’t like that part but my real focus the final deal. This feels more sustainable than full dodge.”

Later that month, a Politico story caused consternation at Clinton’s Brooklyn campaign headquarters. The story quoted Obama’s deputy press secretary Eric Schultz, telling reporters that he had not “seen anything to suggest any distance” between Obama and Clinton on the TPP.

Palmieri emailed that Schultz had warned her about his comments.

“They did not want to buy into notion that HRC’s bar was higher than what the WH thinks they will get in TPP negotiations,” she wrote.

Head speechwriter Dan Schwerin was not happy.

“This probably pushes us to oppose,” he said. “Really stupid on their part.”

The email exchanges make clear the trade deal was an issue the campaign monitored closely, flagging news stories and holding a number of meetings, including some with Clinton herself.

The campaign’s labor outreach director, Nikki Budzinski, highlighted it in a July 2015 email as one of a number of issues important to unions.

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On Oct, 6, 215, Schwerin circulated a draft of comments written for Clinton as she prepared to come out against the TPP.

“Thanks to all for the feedback,” he wrote. “This is indeed a hard balance to strike, since we don’t want to invite mockery for being too enthusiastically opposed to a deal she once championed, or over-claiming how bad it is, since it’s a very close call on the merits.”

Joel Benenson, chief strategist for Clinton’s campaign, reminded Schwerin about Clinton’s past support for free trade. He wrote the campaign could not “try to retrofit the criteria for this statement,” adding that the text needed to be consistent with remarks she made in June.

“Also, while we’re opposing this, don’t we want to say something generally about ensuring that American manufacturers can compete around the world and sell their products in more markets?” he wrote. “I accept the position we’re taking but she has generally been more pro-trade than anti and we get [what] we need politically by opposing this so shouldn’t she say something about the need for American companies to gain access to new markets?”