02 trump clinton splits 1017
Clinton still leads but 3 states, key district move toward Trump
01:40 - Source: CNN
CNN  — 

Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman suggested the problems raised by Clinton’s use of a private email serving during her tenure as secretary of state was the reason one of Clinton’s closest advisers did not want her to mount a presidential campaign, according to emails stolen by hackers from John Podesta and published by WikiLeaks.

In a July 2015 correspondence between Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and Clinton loyalist Neera Tanden, Podesta writes: “At least we now know why Cheryl didn’t want her to run,” referring to Cheryl Mills a longtime top aide who served as Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department.

The comment was made in response to an earlier email from Tanden asking Podesta if the person who advised Clinton she could use the private server had been “drawn and quartered” for giving such advice.

Tanden is the president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress.

WikiLeaks has released hacked emails daily over the past few weeks and has promised to do so into the future. US officials have said the releases bear the hallmarks of Russian meddling in the US election – which WikiLeaks has denied.

It is impossible to verify the authenticity of the emails or the context, as WikiLeaks controls their release and the Clinton campaign has refused to confirm or deny any documents’ authenticity.

The problems raised by Clinton’s use and the legal challenges they might present came up in another discussion from Mills to Podesta, and top members of Clinton’s communication team at the campaign in August 2015 when Mills forwarded information regarding a former CIA Director’s use of classified material outside of the office.

Clinton’s use of the private email server, and the transmission of a small amount of material that was retroactively upgraded to classified status has drawn a great deal of criticism from across the Republican spectrum.

Mills forwards an email she received from R. Scott Patrick, a former staffer at the Democratic National Committee and Bill Clinton, who wrote about “deep and early precedent” illustrated in a book by David Hoffman about the CIA of former Director Stansfield Turner who took home top secret classified reports that he “edited and worked on.”

Patrick recommended the campaign “putting together a few highly respected intelligence service professionals that will push out a few talking points that will help level the playing field.” He suggested Tom Donlion, a former National Security Adviser to President Barack Obama might have some ideas on people to call on.

“We are still not authenticating individual emails hacked by the Russian government and weaponized by Wikileaks,” Glen Caplin, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign said in a written statement in response to questions about the emails.

“The nominee of what was once the party of Reagan is taking Putin’s denial of the hacking over the clear conclusions of the US intelligence community, the Republican Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and even his own running mate,” Caplin also said in the statement.

He added: “Meanwhile, news reports have detailed that a criminal investigation into Trump’s former campaign chair is ongoing while two other Trump campaign associates are reportedly being looked at for their ties to the Russian hacking. Donald Trump owes the American people answers on why he’s coddling Putin and cheering on this interference in our democracy.”

CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.