WikiLeaks: Google’s Eric Schmidt Working with Clinton Campaign

A document attached to a leaked email from Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, made public by WikiLeaks, appear to show Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, working directly with the Clinton campaign.

An attachment to the email written by Teddy Goff, a former Obama campaign Digital Director now working for the Clinton campaign, appears to discuss “Working relationships with Google, Facebook, Apple, and other technology companies.” Goff further states that the Clinton campaign has “begun having discreet conversations with some of these companies.” This memo seems to have been drafted sometime in October 2014, at least six months prior to Clinton announcing her run for the presidency.

The memo also includes some of Goff’s suggested starting points for the digital campaign to undertake, which are listed as:

• Raising lots of money;
• Creating and distributing excellent content, for both supportive and persuadable audiences,on social and paid media and in videos; and
• Recruiting, engaging, and organizing volunteers and prospective volunteers.

Throughout the memo, Goff repeatedly refers to “Eric Schmidt’s group,” at one point saying, “I have been kept apprised of the work being done by Eric Schmidt’s group and others working directly and indirectly with your team. [emphasis added] On the whole, I am comfortable with where we stand and confident in our roadmap to launch day and beyond.”

Schmidt’s team seemed to be quite crucial in the development of Clinton’s online campaign, with Goff saying, “We have instructed Eric’s team to build the most important products in their portfolio—specifically, the back-end of the website, the ability to accept donations (along with associated features, most importantly the ability to store credit card information), and the ability to acquire email addresses—first.”

The Washington Free Beacon proposes that the Eric Schmidt-backed startup known as The Groundwork is the group in question. To date, The Groundwork, who’s website consists simply of a pyramid-like logo, has been paid approximately $600,000 by the Clinton campaign.

Google have previously been accused of manipulating search results in favour of Clinton, while WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has outright claimed that Google is “directly engaged” in the Clinton campaign. With recent revelations that Sheryl Sandberg worked to organise meetings between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the Clinton campaign, it seems that many Silicon Valley elites are attempting to align themselves heavily with the Democratic presidential nominee.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart Tech, regularly writing about issues of Free Speech and online Censorship. Follow him on Twitter@LucasNolan_ or email him at lucas@yiannopoulos.net