Let’s say you’re running a huge campaign to elect Hillary Clinton president. Citizens United made it possible for Super PACs to raise unlimited amounts of money from incredibly rich people. You want them to give as much money as possible to Priorities USA, the main Super PAC supporting Clinton.
Sadly, however, there are still rules forbidding campaign staffers from explicitly asking the incredibly rich to give more than $5,000 to Super PACs like Priorities USA. They are loose rules, and rarely enforced rules, but they are rules nonetheless.
So what can you, a Clinton operative with a Cleveland Park mortgage and irritatingly expensive children, do to avoid paying defense lawyers half a million dollars in the very unlikely event that the Federal Election Commission decides to open an investigation into what you did?
Fortunately, a 2015 memo evidently written by Marc Elias, now general counsel for the Clinton campaign, explains it all. Very precisely.
The memo, found among the trove of documents from the Democratic National Committee apparently stolen by the hacker who goes by the name Guccifer 2.0, includes rules and sample statements that will keep you on the right side of America’s barely existing campaign finance laws.
All the rules quoted below are taken directly from that memo. The sample statements are an artistic extrapolation.
Rule: “All conversations that refer to a Preferred Super PAC should include a hard ask for $5,000.”
Statement: “The law allows us to ask our supporters to give $5,000 to the Priorities USA Super PAC. I legally cannot ask you to give more than that, even though, given your enormous fortune, you could easily afford it. You are very handsome and/or pretty.”
Rule: “Do not specifically earmark the funds for [Hillary Clinton]’s election.”
Statement: “We do not control how Priorities USA spends its money. Anything is possible! Anything at all! All the people making the decisions have been employed by Bill and Hillary Clinton since 1995.”
Rule: “As long as a hard money solicitation is made, you may speak freely about the campaign’s support for that Super PAC’s work.”
Statement: “We hope you will give $5,000 to Priorities USA! We can’t win this election without them! Of course, we are not asking you to give them more than $5,000! That would be a violation of obscure campaign finance regulations and we care about upholding those far more than winning even though if we lose to Trump the earth will be covered in a pestilential darkness!”
Rule: “You may make the hard money solicitation after the statement(s) of support. … If you inadvertently forget before hanging up, you should call the campaign donor immediately and make the hard money solicitation.”
Statement: “We just want to emphasize that Priorities USA is fantastic and the only thing that can stop Trump from feeding your kids to his herd of giant man-eating hogs.” [HANG UP, CALL BACK] “Sorry, I forgot to mention that we are only asking you to give $5,000 to Priorities USA and not some greater amount reflecting the value you place on your children’s lives.” [MAKE OINKING SOUNDS]
Rule: “If a donor provides you with an amount of money that s/he wants to give and asks where it should go, you should reply with a hard money ask. If a donor says to you, “I have $1 million I want to spend on this election” and asks where it should go, you should reply with a hard money ask.”
Statement: “I want the first $5,400 to go to the campaign. The next $33,400 should go [to] the DNC’s main account. The next $70,000 should go to the following seven state party federal accounts (then list them). The next $100,200 should go to the DNC’s building fund account. Finally, you should support [Preferred Super PAC A] and [Preferred Super PAC B]. We cannot win without them. The law allows us to ask our supporters for $5,000 each for [Preferred Super PAC A and B]. That is what we are doing.”
(OK, that one was actually word-for-word from the memo.)
Rule: “You may provide contact information of Super PAC personnel, but you may not lean on the donor to take a call or meeting from Super PAC personnel.”
Statement: “You can contact the president of Priorities USA to learn more. Here is his work phone, cellphone, home phone, email, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Skype, Snapchat, Instagram, mailing address and he just texted me that he is standing outside your front door right now dressed as George Washington. But no pressure.”
Here’s the memo:
Citizens United INVOLVED HILLARY – how can you people be so uninformed? The case was about her!
The GOP PAC “Citizen’s United” funded a smear movie about her in 2008, the FEC sued, it went to SCOTUS and THEY LOST. Get it?
HRC LOST and now PAC’s are legal. No one wants it overturned more than her, it’s personal.
I want to see more posts blaming “the republicans” and specifically the trumpster for Clinton’s greed and corruption.
publicly financed campaigns…Bernie style campaigning…
Crooked and Cunning.
There he is again, General Hercules, anyone seen his binkie? Somebody needs to put him back into the crib. He’s back to confusing Hillary with his mommy.
This is simply a memo to help people who work for the campaign to stay out of trouble . If demonstrates how easy it is to get around it it also demonstrates how easy it is to get into hot water. Just think if your headline said “Clinton campaign makes sure campaign workers know the intricacies of the new campaign finance rules after the republican dominated Supreme Court basically eliminated limits on big donors”.
Not choosing warren as vp has nothing to do with Wall Street. A) we don’t want her to choose any dem senator so that we have a better chance at taking the senate b) warren is best where she is for seee now you w c) ticket doesn’t need 2 women and may benefit greatly from another more divers choice.
Thank you for the reality check among the delusionals.
We have a very corrupt political system. The Clintons are merely adept at swimming in it.
This has nothing to do with the Clintons. They are just the rules. And rules are always pushed to the limits to gain advantage in business or politics. Politics and power are by their nature inherently corrupt. It is amazing that anyone it surprised by this. Trump funneled campaign donations into his own businesses. This is the way it works like it or not.
Exactly. It’s that thing that astonishes people over and over, especially those who don’t live in the real world: it’s called REALITY. Reality is messy. The entire thing about money in politics is garbage. If anyone really cared about creating an even playing field, they would do what had to be done in Europe: ban political advertising on the airwaves. I know, impossible in free speech America. It would have to be likened to shouting fire in a crowded theater but that will never happen. It’s a complete waste of time limiting PAC money, the rich will still find a way to get their lies on the airwaves. If Hillary weren’t backed by PAC, then she wouldn’t be able to compete against any one of the Ross Perot wannabes.
The statements do have a certain sense of humor, but they also highlight how easily the rules can be bypassed. One scary article popped up last week that pointed out that Hillary would risk losing all the money that Wall street will throw at her if she dares select Elizabeth Warren as her VP. That tells us how much of a shill and prostitute for Wall street and the hedge funds Hillary will be as President. She has already received millions in upfront bribes in expectation of no prosecutions or better regulations.
very good girls
“Right now we’re facing an emergency goal of $100,000 to help get our ads on the air,” the Trump campaign said. “We need your contribution by 11:59 P.M.”
Let’s see, who do we want for president, the above desperate liar, true bigot, fake billionaire, attempting to claw his way out of the sewer pipe of hate or somebody who is actually organized about raising money? Hmmm…
The Mafia has been very organized about raising money, too. Hmmm…
Rules/laws are made and instead of following the spirit of them lawyers are sicced to find every loophole that will allow the spirit to be trampled in their favor without actually breaking it. This is how our society works.
Your right, I want someone who has a proven record of getting rich off the backs of the taxpayers.
Let’s see, helping 9.9 million invisible Africans get access to HIV meds… Yup. Real dirty stuff, ugly. Helping the uber poor, the only American President to offer something to the Palestinians that was meaningful so that even Noam Chomsky in his soft spoken way had to praise since, in the end, he wracked his brains and couldn’t seem to come up with anything but the Clinton Parameters when he put his mind to it. Don’t mean to shake up your Trey Gowdy-Intercept, holier than thou universe… but them the facts and you won’t see a single iota of evidence, just Trey Gowdy-Tea Bagger–Newt Gingrich talking points among the trust funded Jill Stein liberals…
Rules/laws are made and instead of following the spirit of them lawyers are sicced to find every loophole that will allow the spirit to be trampled in their favor without actually breaking it. This is how our society works.
Rules/laws are made and instead of following the spirit of them lawyers are sicced to find every loophole that will allow the spirit to be trampled in their favor without actually breaking it. This is how our society works.
Something that will never see the light of day?
I actually didn’t bother with the reading part. The Title was enough to make you realize you were trying make a story out of nothing but protocols in place to educate Fund Raisers on legalities. I do not understand the Intercept. The Mandate for The Intercept was to give a foundation to release information on the abuse of power by the Intelligence Community; instead it seems it is nothing more than political badgering. And the thing is it always is aimed at the Obama Administration or the Democrats. It makes me wonder if someone encouraged you all to shut up?
just another step in the mutant process from migrate the wallstreet criminal thieves who rob america with home load fraud pricing to the EU “we will run the British economy” to “We need you to fight our wars and pay our prices by borrowing from us” for GLOBAL ECONOMIC DOMINATION because we Zions have printed your dollar currency since 23 December 1913.
Zions say “Don’t go fuck yourself America because we’re going to fuck you for you”.
Read you Bible. Jesus turned the tables on these these in protest and now they oppose BrExit.
LEAVE
So the Clinton Foundation is a slush fund. Hillary finds a way to break the FEC laws and it’s not even that clever. This is money laundering: having donors donate to places that give Hillary all of their money. Oh and Hillary made paid speeches in March 2015 after she’d already hired and paid staff and rented a campaign office. She’s so toast!
Those are childish talking points worthy of Trey Gowdy. You know nothing about the Clinton Foundation except what you hear from Tea Baggers and trust fund babies living their holier than thou fantasies. You repeat the lies of others because you are you’ve been hijacked by the online bs artists and it fits your little preconceived notions about the world.
This is an example of what’s wrong with Clinton era Democrats. We always get these gross semantic games with these lawyers from the Abyss. Its infected everything. For example, in the Planned Parenthood videos. The attitude from Clinton baby boomer career Democrats is to find ways to break the spirit of the law without leaving fingerprints on the letter of the law.
Please, people, spare us 4-8 years of debating the meanings of words, likely under oath at that.
mutant ninja hoes
Yet Dinesh D’Sousa is the one who went to jail X 8 months.
Good for a laugh but it seems kinda boilerplate… like typical ***’*ing for Dummies” or “An idiot’s guide to ****ing.
Where’s the goddamn edit button???
formula driven sales pitch
you dont need brain, just pretend you are a robot (not human) and read the profayshunally prepared script. Pretend you are talking to another robotron who also follows an “i hear and obey” installed script, robot to robot. It’s a numbers game and the robots are what count, and the humans don’t.
The Clinton’s are as slimey and sleezy as they come. New book our June 28, “Crisis of Character”, written by ex-Secret Service Agent who was assigned to the WH to guard the Clintons in the 1990,s will reveal just how vicious and vile these two people are. The slimy Clinton Cartel is already attempting to keep any network from interviewing the author.
Sounds like advice from C-3PO. Creepy Clintons.
To be fair, Donald Trump’s giant man-eating hogs are key to his plans for securing the border. Also for killing ’em scary Muslims, seeing as they hate pork and all.
just for kicks and giggles i googled “mexican gangs kill babies” in response to someone telling me ISIS was bad. What i was trying to say and did, MEXICO IS WORSE.
i recall the collective of Catholic Priests requesting of the Pope to Exorcise ALL OF MEXICO.
I recall when Mexico was a good and fun place to vacation. Now? Worse than hell and the mexican gov (grupo beta) are sending them all here to participate in a larger plan to occupy America to take the land, take the votes, and run their drug economy (20% of mexican gdp now) upon the people of the US.
20% of MX GDP? Incredible.
“Officials estimate that the drug trade makes up 3 to 4 percent of Mexico’s $1.2 trillion annual GDP—totaling as much as $30 billion—”
http://www.cfr.org/mexico/mexicos-drug-war/p13689
It looks like the paid- Clinton -campaign-trolls have found the comments section of the Intercept to correct the record…is there no sanctuary from these butt wipes?
I’ve learned two things from this article:
1. These Gufficer 2.0 leaks are so innocuous that they need gimmicks to spice them up.
2. Good comedy/satire is tough.
Hi Hillary
And Brocks “Deflect” the record is in the house…
bernie still did not win and jill stein does not count.
wow, hillary’s political machine has perfected how to most effectively solicit campaign funds. i am shocked, shocked i tell you to find gambling going on in this establishment.
Jill Stein does not count? Quite the opposite: she’s the only decent candidate running. Clinton and Trump are equally scum (no offense to microorganisms, I’m speaking figuratively).
JILL STEIN COUNTS.
So does my voice.
I will vote my conscience.
to hell with hellery. sayanara donald. hello jill and me.
I’m With Her. Meaning Jill Stein.
Out of the DemocRAT Party, meaning the up and down vote. In my case that means this one person is not voting again for senators E Warren, E Markey and rep R Neal. Strike three, they’re out. Done with them for good. Vote fraud is a severe crime in my book.
And of course, NEVER HILLARY. Repulsive, dishonest, murderous human being. Unthinkable that I would ever vote for her. Sen Warren put ambition above integrity–done ith her, with no regrets. All the Super-predators, um, delegates, are getting letters from me after the convention. I think Sanders is wasting his time trying to reform the hopelessly corrupt DemocRAT Party. But I’m not wasting my time. I’ll vote Jill Stein.
But if it is real close, hell, I might vote Trump. Just to punish the Dem bastards.
The judges for the Trey-Gowdy-Tea Bagger-Intercept Asshat of the Week Award have duly noted these comments. Keep up the good work, you’re definitely on the short list.
I can just see it now, the Jill Stein holier than thou bumper sticker on the rear of your dusty “I don’t have inherited wealth–or just not much–AWD, down to earth Subaru” or did you get the Prius?
Also, if she personally gets 250k-650k for ONE “speech” she is free to spend her own dough on the campaign too. So her “speeches” (she probably only says “hello” and “thanks for the check” but hey, she talked so it probably passes legal muster, also would explain why there are not any transcripts) anyhow, the speeches are just another avenue for cronies to give her bank to influence the election so she can return the favors.
After 30 years of gaming the system as a pay-to-play criminal syndicate the Clintons are experts.
this reads like satire, is it?
So once again the Clintons are skirting the law to get what they want. How can anybody support these corrupt criminals?
What gets me is the way they arranged for Rick Scott to come down all the way from Mars, become the Republican governor, just so they could have him rig the vote in Florida and steal it from Feel-the trust fund-Berne Sanders! I mean, it’s just so awful, the Berne won over 99.99% of the Florida vote and he still lost.
The Intercept has broken yet another cutting edge story, changing the world as we know it: The Hillary Clinton campaign, while attempting to beat Donald Trump for the presidency is actually raising money and doing so legally… Wow, The Intercept has done it again. It now ranks up there with great journalism such as High Times Magazine. Gee, I wonder who funds them? Must be the poor, working class and minorities scraping together a living, despite the threat of deportation, and sending their hard earned money in for such a venerable cause. Thank you for another enlightening article about politics and reality! Woohoo!!!
We know that Jimmy’s a volunteer shill for Killary & Kompany — cuz the paid, official shills at least pretend not to be assholes.
The unpaid ones are idiots. Because they are missing out on the Brock “Correct the Record” payola. I have to say, it is unbelievable what idiots Clinton voters are. I hope they come around to my door some time before the election if she isn’t marched off to prison first. I’ll have a good time destroying their naivety. With prejudice.
You’re a runner up for the Trey-Gowdy-Tea Bagger-Intercept Asshat of the Week Award. The judges are still in session sharing notes. Will let you know if you’ve been selected. Keep up the good work.
seriously who comments like that on this site.. pretty obvious troll is only playing itself. Correct the Record is a sad excuse for a job, I bet they won’t ever put that on their resume.
I’m sure there is an innocent rationale for this. Where’s Jimmy to enlighten us?
I just reread this and am LOL!
Outstanding. Good job, Jon, on educating us and at the same time giving us a fun read.
Of course I’m also shaking my head that this kind of corruption is going on. And though this is from the Clinton camp, don’t think it doesn’t/wouldn’t happen elsewhere.
We need better.
“You are very handsome and/or pretty.” ?
Are they required to sleep with potential donors?
The fact that a former President goes around collecting money at the levels he does is a travesty as it is the clearest example of the corrupting influence of money in politics. There is no better example of those in power amorally profiting after they pass through the turnstile to K Street.
This group of Sherwood Forest bloggers fully understands Super Pacs and foundations are the wealthy’s greatest tool to hide the money they have stolen from the treasury and labor. On top of the initial theft and the avoidance of taxes, they benefit from the time value of money so they can buy politicians in perpetuity.
This surprises you?
The Democratic Party is an America-hating terrorist organization which should be outlawed
@doug –
Hmmmmm – and the other major party is just fine, no corruption or wrongdoing there, right? Oh wait, isn’t there a candidate that is slinging a lot of bigotry around? No problem with that?
If you say there are problems on both sides, I might actually agree, but singling out one side and letting the other have a free pass? Don’t think so.
Republican Party “corruption or wrongdoing”?
Nope.
Not. A. Smidgen.
Right on! No one should ever single out the Democrats no matter what they do – it MUST be offset by a similar transgression from a Republican even if you have to make it up! Hey, it’s the GOP who are the evil ones – the Dem’s just suffer and occasional diversion.
I think that was in the memo…. equivocate, pivot, insult. Classic. Negative coverage is 4:1 Trump: Clinton. But am sure you are fine with that.
Thanks for calling attention to this stuff. I threw up a little in my mouth while reading the memo.
Knowing those wacky liberals, he’s most likely dressed as Martha Washington
While Clintonistas will scream, “This just proves the Royal Vaj meticulously follows the laws!” it actually means that her band of ‘operatives’ are not going to be sloppy when they conduct their activities.
No Watergate messiness or semen-stained dress mishaps on Hillary’s watch!
WOW! Is this for REAL??!!
Jon, this is FUNNY but CROOKED HRC is not……nor are her or her campaign’s shenanigans…..
What bloody liars!
ps your “ironical” write ups have been missed…..
It just goes to show how stupid the idea of “campaign finance reform” really is – and always has been. It’s a bunch of bureaucracy that would try to censor what people say. Since when has that ever worked, for anything?
You’re correct about campaign finance reform not working, but not for the reason you think. Forget campaign finance reform, what’s needed is total elimination of private campaign contributions. All campaign financing should be done by the government from public funds, and all candidates who can show a certain threshold of support should get the same amount.
@Jeff D: That’s distilled bullshit. To start with, anybody can sell Trump a $100 million asset for $50 million if they want, provided they have a hundred million dollar asset that is, and you can’t prove shit about what that is intended to influence. And what are you going to do with Fox News, Hannity, Daily Kos? Are you going to send a subpoena to The Intercept to keep them from bashing Hillary until after the DNC does their official thing, and tell Wikipedia editors they can’t work on articles about her emails or Trump’s penis? Because there’s very little distinction between these kinds of PACs and simply saying what you think in the media or online. (Also, there’s the odd little wrinkle that you say you have to get support with public funds, but you need public funds to get support) You could supplement with public funding, but banning campaign finance of any variety is impossible.
I see that you support legalized bribery, aka private campaign financing. Nothing more to say, we have no basis of discussion on this issue.
Re corporate and other media, we need a return to and strengthening of the Fairness Doctrine that fascist Ronald Reagan eliminated. All major TV networks — who are using OUR public airwaves — should have to provide free air time for all candidates that have a certain threshold of support. It’s not about stopping anyone from saying anything — though I would like to prohibit lying, which is rampant among the major party candidates and not that uncommon among some of the smaller party candidates either, but that’s another issue — it’s about giving everyone an equal voice. You know, the First Amendment, which technology and overpopulation have made irrelevant without getting on TV.
Any claim to the government not having money is totally ignorant and/or dishonest. Saying the government doesn’t have money to provide financing for political campaigns or anything else is like a carpenter telling you he can’t finish building your house because he ran out of inches. But if you need to look for money, look no further than the grossly bloated military and black budgets, and the lack of taxes paid by the rich and their corporations. There’s plenty of money, it’s just a question of priorities.
For me, voting for Hilaryous..ranks just below leaving a “package” in the woods for bears to find.
I’m gonna have to find a new way to lower her on my list of voting choices.
Leaving a “package” in the woods helps build soil, which is a positive thing…
Once again, hackers get the real information.
The mainstream media is political advertising. There have been numerous examples of mainstream media withholding a story to get political favors. Even the NY Times has done it.
Please, please leak all illegal activities to Wikileaks, The Intercept, or other media outlets that have a secure dropbox.
Wikileaks and anonymous email accounts are dead simple, and allow the safe transmission of information.
The WORLD thanks YOU in advance!!
It’s not “even” the New York Times. The Times has been caught running stories written by the CIA (i.e., propaganda masquerading as news) and has long refused to print stories that might upset their major advertisers, most notably auto manufacturers. While the Times has printed some good stuff like the Pentagon Papers, it represents the liberal end of corporate America, just like the Democratic Party.
Ha! Well done.
Of course, I prefer my democracy rare, but that’s a good thing, cuz, around here, it’s as rare as the quality of mercy.
CrookdClinton it is. Guess what is all hidden in the crookdemails the dog atar!