Clinton Campaign Leans On Liberal Groups to Mount Attack on Critical Book

Less than two weeks into Hillary Clinton’s second presidential campaign, the candidate and her Republican foes are already in the midst of an information war by proxy.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign circulated a memo Tuesday that aims to discredit the author of a soon-to-be published “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” by linking author Peter Schweizer to the Clinton family’s conservative foes.

The main source of information for the Clinton campaign’s memo: Two left-leaning organizations backed by Clinton allies. “We wanted to share with you what we have learned about this book, the author and the false accusations he’s making so that you can help us shed light on the truth and debunk the myths,” said the Clinton campaign in the memo. “The book was backed by a Koch Brothers-linked organization and a billionaire family that is bankrolling Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign,” the Clinton’s note continues.

The memo, written by the campaign’s national press secretary Brian Fallon, relies heavily on reporting from an outside website set up by Clinton loyalists long accustomed to supporting the Clinton cause: Media Matters, a left-leaning website founded by Clinton ally David Brock, and ThinkProgress, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, which was founded by Clinton campaign chairman and former White House chief of staff John Podesta. In an interview earlier this week, Podesta dismissed the book as “a bunch of conspiracy theories.”

The Clinton campaign’s use of the outside groups is a first glimpse of how the official Clinton campaign plans to use a coalition of technically independent groups that progressive donors hope will elevate Clinton to the White House. Under current campaign finance rules, Clinton cannot privately coordinate spending on political messaging with either Media Matters or the Center for American Progress Action Fund. But all of the groups can make use of each other’s published work.

“These types of books are standard fare in political campaigns now, and this one is clearly part of a coordinated Republican strategy. But this is not the first work of partisan-fueled fiction about Hillary Clinton’s record, and we know it will not be the last,” said Fallon in the memo. “Clinton Cash” purports to find instances in which U.S. policy benefited companies that donated to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. It points to alleged conflicts of interest in which Clinton is said to have used her office in the Obama Administration to specifically aid donors to her philanthropy.

The Media Matters report cited in the memo points out that Schweizer is president of the Government Accountability Institute, which has received funding from major donors to the Republican party and other conservative causes. The memo goes on to note that some Republicans, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, have received pre-release briefings about the book. Schweizer is a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution and a former speechwriting consultant to former President George W. Bush.

During her listening tour in New Hampshire on Monday, Clinton aimed to rise above the fray surrounding her foundation, calling the book and the Republican rigamarole around it a “distraction.” But the circulation of the memo shows that the Clinton campaign and its allies are willing to get into a nasty fight over Clinton’s record—just from behind the scenes.

“While Republicans focus their efforts on attacks, Hillary Clinton is going to continue to focus on how to help everyday Americans get ahead and stay ahead,” says the memo. “That’s what her campaign is about, and no book—especially one as discredited as this one—is going to change that.”

With reporting by Zeke J. Miller