Daily revelations from a top campaign aide's stolen emails are frustrating Hillary Clinton's attempts to make closing arguments and guard her lead over Republican Donald Trump in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election.
The latest ABC News tracking poll shows Mrs Clinton holding a 6 percentage point advantage in a four-way contest with Mr Trump, the Libertarian party's Gary Johnson and Green party candidate Jill Stein.
But the WikiLeaks organisation has been releasing daily batches of emails pilfered from the account of John Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign and a former White House chief of staff, that reveal the sometimes fractious inner workings of the former secretary of state's campaign.
Comment: "Pilfered", "fractious". FT certainly has the kid gloves on when handling the torrent of information detailing the maelstrom of corruption surrounding Slick Willy and Killary. They did forget to mention that Podesta lost his own poorly-protected phone which had the dirt on it. Kinda like Killary's home-brew server, when you think about it.
Podesta emails reveal aides had access to his email accounts, lost phone but didn't change passwords, and other security breaches
The emails reveal the overlap between the Clintons' charitable foundation, Mrs Clinton's work as secretary of state and her husband's for-profit speechmaking. At the centre of the latest controversy is Doug Band, president of the consultancy Teneo Holdings, who filled multiple roles as an aide to the former president. Republicans have accused Mr Band of acting as the ringleader of a "pay-for-play" operation that solicited foundation donations from companies that were also pressed to hire the ex-president for paid speeches.
With less than two weeks to election day, and millions of votes already cast in states that allow early voting, Mr Trump is hammering a "drain the swamp" message about political corruption. On Thursday, he tweeted out news reports on Mr Band's activities. Later at a rally in Springfield, Ohio, Mr Trump called the emails evidence that the Clintons were "outright corrupt."
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, described one Band memo, which contained a list of companies that had donated to the Clinton Foundation, as "the smoking gun for how the Clintons used their foundation to create a massive for-profit paid speaking and consulting business to enrich themselves".
In February 2014, Mr Band pressed Mr Podesta to meet Andrew McKenzie, the chief executive of BHP Billiton, during a Washington visit the following month, according to new emails released by WikiLeaks on Thursday. The Anglo-Australian mining company had contributed $175,000 to the Clinton Foundation two years earlier.
"Would really appreciate if you could see andrew, important to me," Mr Band wrote Mr Podesta on February 27, 2014.
Thirteen hours later, Mr Podesta replied: "For you, I'll try."
In a statement, Mr Band's firm said: "Teneo worked to encourage clients, where appropriate, to support the Clinton Foundation because of the good work that it does around the world. It also clearly shows that Teneo never received any financial benefit or benefit of any kind from doing so."
Comment: Really? No benefit at all from being Bill's booking agent?
Conflicts of interests & the extent of Bill Clinton's 'for profit' activities revealed by Podesta emails
Band is co-founder of global PR consulting firm Teneo and worked as Bill Clinton's personal assistant during his presidency. Teneo had raised millions for the Foundation while also working for Bill Clinton's personal interests when he was a paid adviser to the company. In 2012, Clinton's position changed to "friend and unpaid adviser" to Teneo as well as being a client of the company.
The Clinton campaign has declined to authenticate the emails, which WikiLeaks is releasing in daily online instalments. Earlier this month, Mrs Clinton's spokesman called the group, headed by Julian Assange, a "propaganda arm" of the Russian government.
The Republican candidate means many different things to his supporters, but all of them feel ignored by Washington
A March 6, 2015 email from a campaign aide asked if two speeches by the former president scheduled for the first days following his wife's planned April 12, 2015 candidacy announcement could be "pulled down". One of the two speeches was cancelled; a second on April 16 occurred as scheduled.
Neera Tanden, a close Clinton aide and now president of the Center for American Progress in Washington, wrote to Mr Podesta on July 25, 2015 amid mushrooming concerns about Mrs Clinton's use of a private email server. "Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email? And has that person been drawn and quartered?" Ms Tanden asked. "Like whole thing is f***ing insane."
A January 12 email from Ron Klain, a former aide to vice-president Joe Biden, to Mr Podesta and other senior officials showed the campaign preoccupied by the same vulnerabilities that dog it in the election's waning days. Under the subject line "political questions", Mr Klain posed a series of queries that were dominating news coverage, including mention of "new revelations about your emails" and the question: "Can voters trust you?"
Mr Klain's email also contains several questions about "WJC issues", a reference to former President William Jefferson Clinton and "his conduct" towards other women. "How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did?" the email asks, in an allusion to the entertainer accused by dozens of women of drugging and raping them.
Both candidates were scheduled to visit key swing states on Thursday, with Mrs Clinton to appear with first lady Michelle Obama in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Mr Trump planning three rallies in Ohio.





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