"Know you love her, but this stuff is like her Achilles heal," Neera Tanden told John Podesta about Cheryl Mills in an email exchange. | AP Photo Clinton adviser: ‘They wanted to get away with it’ on private email setup

As the story about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account broke last year, the head of a pro-Clinton think tank complained that a penchant for secrecy within Clinton’s inner circle only exacerbated the controversy, which would go on to dog her entire presidential campaign, according to a hacked email released Tuesday by WikiLeaks.

In the exchange, Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden complained to incoming Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta that Clinton lawyer and former State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills had allowed the email situation to fester to the point where it became a liability to Clinton’s presidential bid.


“This is a cheryl special. Know you love her, but this stuff is like her Achilles heal. [sic] Or kryptonite. she just can't say no to this shit. Why didn't they get this stuff out like 18 months ago? So crazy,” Tanden wrote.

“Unbelievable,” Podesta replies.

“I guess I know the answer. They wanted to get away with it,” Tanden said, urging that Clinton turn over the emails to the National Archives immediately.

At an earlier point in the exchange, Podesta appears to criticize Clinton lawyer David Kendall and Clinton communications adviser Philippe Reines for being too opaque about the email situation, although it’s unclear whether Podesta is faulting them for not being transparent with him or the public.

“Speaking of transparency, our friends Kendall, Cheryl and Phillipe sure weren't forthcoming on the facts here,” Podesta wrote.

Mills was told by the State Department in July 2014 that some emails from Clinton’s private account were turning up in searches of other State files for records requested by the House Benghazi Committee. A formal request went to Clinton and other former secretaries in August. Clinton did not turn over her archive until December 2014, limiting what she provided to material her lawyers concluded was likely to be work-related.

