Hillary Clinton's campaign began worrying in the run-up to Iowa and New Hampshire that the former first lady would start getting questions from the press about rape allegations against her husband.

A January 12, 2016, email taken from John Podesta's account that was posted to Wikileaks reveals an internal debate about how to handle questions that could arise about Bill's conduct.

They were specifically worried that the former president would be compared to rapist Bill Cosby.

'How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did?' was one of the mock questions on their list.

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Hillary Clinton's campaign began worrying in the run-up to Iowa and New Hampshire that it the former first lady would start getting questions from the press about rape allegations against her husband. They were specifically worried that the former president would be compared to rapist Bill Cosby

Hillary had already been confronted at a town hall event by a Donald Trump supporter at this point with rape allegations.

Bill had dodged a question in Iowa about his past marring his wife's campaign.

Asked about Trump, who had released a video that day with a picture of Hillary and Cosby that labeled the Democratic candidate a 'true defender of women’s rights,' Bill said, 'I don't have a response.'

'If he wins the Republican nomination, we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it if Hillary wins.'

The ex- president added, 'I don’t want to be involved in their politics or do anything except trying to help Hillary.'

Five days later Clinton adviser Ron Klain told senior campaign staff it was time to go over a series of difficult questions Hillary might get.

'We need to set aside some time – it can be tomorrow, it can be Thursday – to do Q-and-A on the political questions, which now seem to be really owning the coverage,' he said.

Klain, who helped to coach Clinton in the presidential debates, sent the email to Jake Sullivan, serving as Hillary's senior policy adviser, Podesta and Karen Dunn, a D.C. lawyer who was also on Clinton's debate prep team this cycle.

Clinton was due to debate Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders in five days in Charleston, South Carolina.

Hillary had already been confronted at a town hall event by a Donald Trump supporter at this point with rape allegations. Bill had dodged a question in Iowa about his past marring his wife's campaign. The Clintons are pictured above at the first general election debate last month

The email doesn't mention the debate, but the timing and participants suggest the upcoming clash was the reason for the conversation.

Klain's list of questions were:

1. Are you slipping in the polls? Why?

2. Do new revelations about your emails bring these issues back?

3. Can voters trust you?

4. WJC Issues

a. Is his conduct relevant to your campaign?

b. You said every woman should be believed. Why not the women who accused him?

c. Will you apologize to the women who were wrongly smeared by your husband and his allies?

d. How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did?

Klain wrote, 'We should agree on the list of questions, and agree on when/how we are prepping these.'

Sullivan said they should discuss the first three and asked Podesta, Bill's former chief of staff at the White House, how he wanted to handle No. 4.

If Podesta responded, the email doesn't currently appear in Wikileaks database. The website is updating its Podesta email files every day, though. It has published 34,197 of the 50,000 emails it says it has.

Donald Trump had also attacked Bill Clinton at that point. He moved shortly after, dropping it from his repertoire as he dueled against a crowded field of Republicans for the nomination

As the Republican came under scrutiny for comments he made in a 2005 tape about grabbing women by their genitals, he drudged up attacks on the Clintons' marriage, even holding a press conference with Bill's accusers, including Juanita Broaddrick (pictured) before the second general election debate

Trump also brought the women - Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey and Paula Jones (center) - as guests to the affair

Trump put dropped the attacks on Bill Clinton shortly after from his repertoire as he dueled against a crowded field of Republicans for the nomination.

As the Republican came under scrutiny for comments he made in a 2005 tape about grabbing women by their genitals, he drudged up attacks on the Clintons' marriage, even holding a press conference with Bill's accusers before the second general election debate.

Trump also brought the women - Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and Paula Jones - as guests to the affair.

Several days later, DailyMail.com asked Bill Clinton about the sexual assault charges against Trump using some of the language the Clinton campaign feared would come up in the context of the former president's own sexual history.

'Do you think they have any merit? Should they be believed?' DailyMail.com asked him as he approached the door of an Iowa Democratic Party field office.

Clinton paused, then said, ''I think my job is to tell people why Hillary should be president.

'I think Michelle Obama just gave the best speech of the campaign,' he said, referring to the first lady's stinging rebuke of Trump's conduct.

With a stare that indicated the conversation was over, Clinton added, 'I have nothing else to say.'