FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

A camp Clinton plot to try to harm the Republican campaign by getting more press coverage for the party's more conservative candidates was revealed in a email released by Julian Assange's Wikileaks. The email was sent in April 2015 - two months before Trump announced he was going to stand and is one of tens of thousands published by Wikileaks from the apparently hacked gmail account of Clinton campaign boss John Podesta. The email from Marissa Astor, and assistant to Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, to Mr Podesta, and copied to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), suggests the campaign knew Mr Trump was going to run for president, and believed by promoting him into the press, it could ultimately harm the Republicans. The email also suggests Hillary Clinton's team felt it would be good for Mrs Clinton if she ran against someone like Mr Trump, as she would have more chance of success. The memo described Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson as "Pied Piper candidates". It said: “We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to them seriously(sic). "Our hope is that the goal of a potential HRC campaign and the DNC would be one-in-the-same: to make whomever the Republicans nominate unpalatable to a majority of the electorate. "We have outlined three strategies to obtain our goal: "1) Force all Republican candidates to lock themselves into extreme conservative positions that will hurt them in a general election; "2) Undermine any credibility/trust Republican presidential candidates have to make inroads to our coalition or independents." Under the heading Pied Piper Candidates the memo continued: "There are two ways to approach the strategies mentioned above. "The first is to use the field as a whole to inflict damage on itself similar to what happened to Mitt Romney in 2012.

GETTY Wikileaks email shows Hillary Clinton wanted Donald Trump as her rival.

"The variety of candidates is a positive here, and many of the lesser known can serve as a cudgel to move the more established candidates further to the right. "In this scenario, we don’t want to marginalise the more extreme candidates, but make them more “Pied Piper” candidates who actually represent the mainstream of the Republican Party. "Pied Piper candidates include, but aren’t limited to: Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Ben Carson." It then went on to describe how the Clinton campaign would cynically "undermine the message and credibility" of candidates like Mr Trump. It added: "Most of the more-established candidates will want to focus on building a winning general election coalition. "The ‘Pied Pipers’ of the field will mitigate this to a degree, but more will need to be done on certain candidates to undermine their credibility among our coalition (communities of colour, millennials, women) and independent voters. "In this regard, the goal here would be to show that they are just the same as every other GOP candidate: extremely conservative on these issues." The memo also showed how the Clinton Campaign would go on the attack against Republican candidates personally to "muddy the waters" scandals linked to Mrs Clinton, including the use of her private email server.

GETTY Donald Trump speaks to the world after election win, but did Wikileaks help him?

We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to them seriously. Camp Clinton email

Incumbent First Lady Michelle Obama famously said during the campaign "when they go low - we go high", but the memo shows Team Clinton was planning the opposite and feared Mrs Clinton's past would come back to haunt her. It added: "As we all know, the right wing attack machine has been building its opposition research on Hillary Clinton for decades. "One way we can respond to these attacks is to show how they boomerang onto the Republican presidential field. "The goal, then, is to have a dossier on the GOP candidates on the likely attacks HRC will face. "Based on attacks that have already occurred, the areas they are highlighting: Transparency and disclosure; Donors and associations; Management and business dealings. "In this regard, any information on scandals or ethical lapses on the GOP candidates would serve well. "We won’t be picky." US political commentator Michael Sainato wrote: "Clinton was widely presumed to be the Democratic presidential nominee long before the primaries began. "Expecting Clinton to be the nominee, the DNC and Clinton campaign developed strategies for the general election. "It was in the best interest of Clinton, and therefore the Democratic Party, that Trump was the Republican presidential nominee." During the campaign, a conspiracy theory Mr Trump, a former good friend of the Clintons, and Democrat supporter, was actually a stooge for the Democrat party within the Republicans, to ensure Mrs Clinton won, as revealed by Express.co.uk.

Donald Trump's model wife wows as he is elected President Wed, November 9, 2016 Melania Trump wore a stunning white outfit as husband Donald Trump is named future President of United States. Play slideshow Getty 1 of 13 Donald Trump's model wife wows as he is elected President