Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager maintained a secret blacklist of people he deemed unqualified to work at the State Department as the former secretary of state was beginning her tenure under the Obama administration, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
"We are beginning the process of separating people we may want to hire from people we do not want to hire at all," Robby Mook wrote in an email to Clinton aides on Feb. 23, 2009, two weeks after Clinton started in her role as secretary of state.
"Below is a list of people we are proposing NOT to hire (the ‘no-offer’ list), along with the name of the person who submitted their resume," he continued.
Mook was not employed by Clinton at the time the email was sent, according to the Post. He previously worked on Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential campaign before moving to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee a few months after sending the email.
The conservative group Citizens United obtained the message through a Freedom of Information Act request. The State Department redacted the names on the blacklist.
"WE RECOGNIZE THERE MAY BE MISTAKES IN THIS LIST, which is why we are circulating it for comments," Mook wrote to Clinton aides, including former chief of staff Cheryl Mills and deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin.
"Please keep in mind when editing this list that we have over 1,300 applications and less than 180 jobs to slot–we must be selective. Pretend you work for the Harvard admissions department," he added.
Michael Boos, executive vice president at Citizens United, called Clinton’s similarities to former president Richard Nixon "striking," telling the Post that Americans deserve to know whose names were redacted from the secret blacklist.