A Washington Post reporter gave John Podesta a "heads up" on a story that mentioned him to make sure he did not have any "issues" with it while a CNN reporter assured a softball interview dealing with Hillary Clinton shortly before her announcement to run for president, according to hacked emails released by WikiLeaks.
Juliet Eilperin, the Washington Post’s White House bureau chief, sent an email to Eryn Sepp, an assistant to Podesta, on March 20, 2015 to give Podesta a "heads up" on a story she was working on that mentioned his time in the Obama White House.
"I hope you had a great time on your cruise, and have had a less-hectic schedule since returning to CAP," Eilperin wrote in the email.
"I just wanted to give you and John a heads up on a story that might run as early as Monday," she continued. "Long story short, it's about the ethics rules Obama adopted in 2009, and how they've been implemented. In that context, I mention that some WH officials have had ties to advocacy groups and activists before entering the WH even if they weren't formally lobbyists. I mention that John accepted donations from Hansjorg Wyss and Tom Steyer when he headed CAP, and obviously they care about environmental issues. I had asked Frank about this when John was still in the WH, but we never closed the loop on this."
"Anyway, it is just one line well into the text of a long story, but I didn't want it to catch you both off guard," she concluded.
The next day, on March 21, 2015, Eilperin sent an additional email to Frank Benenati, then a White House spokesperson and assistant press secretary.
"Nice to see you last night, I hope you had fun," Eilperin wrote. "I sent this note to Eryn yesterday, I just wanted to make sure John Podesta had a heads up that his name will be in a story concerning the White House's ethics policy, which could run on Monday. I don't mention anything specific about the Wyss contract (since I never got a response from you on it), but I do mention that both Wyss and Steyer were CAP donors while he headed the organization."
"This is just one line, pretty low down in the piece, but I don't want him to be surprised since we never discussed it face-to-face. Can you just make sure he gets this note over the weekend?"
After Eilperin provided the portion of her story mentioning Podesta to Benetati, Podesta wrote to Benenati saying he didn’t understand the context and that it probably was not worth worrying about.
Gloria Borger, CNN’s chief political analyst, sought access to Podesta by assuring him a forthcoming interview would not be too difficult.
Borger had plans to produce "who is" profiles for figures in the presidential race and assured Sepp that the interview would not be difficult, according to an email from Sepp to Podesta dated March 25, 2015.
"I know John will have an exalted place in the campaign, and would love to chat with him about HRC—in a general way, not in a gotcha way re HRC," Borger wrote, according to Sepp. "It would be about 10 mins, very general, about her as a person and a candidate."
Borger said she would hold off on airing the interview until Clinton announced.
The Clinton camp boasted of how numerous media figures were in Hillary Clinton’s corner throughout Podesta’s emails. Eilperin and Borger did not immediately return requests for comment on the emails.
The director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security have accused "Russia’s senior-most officials" of hacking and leaking emails posted to Wikiileaks and other sites in order to influence the 2016 election.