Recently leaked emails from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta show an extremely close relationship between the Clinton campaign and Google parent company Alphabet’s Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt.
The emails between Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook show that Schmidt met with Podesta and was interested in assuming the role of “head outside advisor.”
“I met with Eric Schmidt tonight,” wrote Podesta. “As David reported, he’s ready to fund, advise recruit talent, etc. He was more deferential on structure than I expected. Wasn’t pushing to run through one of his existing firms. Clearly wants to be head outside advisor, but didn’t seem like he wanted to push others out.”
Podesta further pushes Mook to meet with Schmidt, writing, “He’s still in DC tomorrow and would like to meet with you if you are in DC in the afternoon. I think it’s worth doing. You around? If you are, and want to meet with him, maybe the four of us can get on the phone in the am. “
Podesta outlined what he and Schmidt discussed, writing, “The thing [Schmidt] really pressed me hard on was geography. Very committed to the idea that this be done in a city where young coders would want to be, preferably outer borough NYC. Thought No Cal was priced out of the market and too into itself. Thought DC lacked talent in this arena.”
In previous emails between Schmidt and Podesta, Schmidt outlined his plan for the Clinton campaign, discussing the location of the campaign headquarters: “The campaign headquarters will have about a thousand people, mostly young and hardworking and enthusiastic. It’s important to have a very large hiring pool (such as Chicago or NYC) from which to choose enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees.”
The Clinton campaign seemed to take Schmidt’s advice, placing the campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.
This is not the first time that Eric Schmidt has been implicated with the Clinton campaign. In previously leaked emails written by Teddy Goff, a former Obama campaign Digital Director now working for the Clinton campaign, “Working relationships with Google, Facebook, Apple, and other technology companies” were discussed.
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. On the whole, I am comfortable with where we stand and confident in our roadmap to launch day and beyond.”
Google as a company has also been accused of working with the Clinton campaign. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed that Google as a company was “directly engaged” in the campaign. Specifically, Assange claimed, “The chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, set up a company to run the digital component of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.”
Eric Schmidt did in fact create a company in the last quarter of 2015 called The Groundwork whose website is empty except for a single placeholder logo. Breitbart has previously reported on The Groundwork and how it was reportedly developed to install Clinton in the Oval Office.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart Tech covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lucas@yiannopoulos.net