Oops! Trump campaign sends email seeking dirt to reporter instead of adviser
Donald Trump has been criticized in recent days for dredging up decades-old Clinton conspiracy theories. And now it appears that the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign misfired while researching one of them.
Politico obtained an email from Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo to the Republican National Committee asking a researcher to provide information on the Whitewater real estate scandal.
“Work up information on HRC/Whitewater as soon as possible,” the email read. “This is for immediate use and for the afternoon talking points process.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who was copied on the email, responded instead to Politico reporter Marc Caputo — no relation to the GOP consultant with whom he shares a surname.
Hicks did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
According to Marc Caputo, it’s not the first time someone has mistakenly emailed him instead of the Republican consultant.
“It’s happened before over the years intermittently — not with the Trump campaign but with other campaigns,” Caputo told Yahoo News. The last time it did, Caputo recalled, was when he was a reporter for the Miami Herald and Michael Caputo was working for a Florida state senate campaign.
Caputo said he believes the email gaffe was a legitimate “misfire.” He said he wasn’t surprised that the Trump campaign sought information on Whitewater, the real estate investment company the Clintons formed before Bill Clinton became governor of Arkansas. After he was elected president, the Justice Department investigated whether the former governor used his influence to secure a $300,000 loan for the company. (Several of Clinton associates were later convicted, but the Clintons were never charged.)
Just this week, the Washington Post published an interview with Trump in which he invoked the Whitewater scandal while musing about the “very fishy” death of former Clinton White House aide Vince Foster. According to multiple investigations, Foster committed suicide, but conspiracy theories have persisted about his death.
“It’s the one thing with her, whether it’s Whitewater or whether it’s Vince or whether it’s Benghazi. It’s always a mess with Hillary,” Trump said.
