Justice official allegedly gave Clinton campaign heads up in e-mail probe, WikiLeaks reveals

Mrs Hillary Clinton speaking at a campaign rally in Las Vegas. PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) - An assistant attorney-general allegedly gave Mrs Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman a "heads up" on a congressional hearing and the latest development in litigation over her use of a private e-mail server, according to purloined e-mails released by WikiLeaks.

"There is a HJC oversight hearing today where the head of our Civil Division will testify," Mr Peter Kadzik wrote to Mr John Podesta in May 2015, apparently referring to the House Judiciary Committee (HJC).

"Likely to get questions on State Department e-mails," he wrote.

He also updated Mr Podesta, a friend since their law school days, on a new filing that "went in last night or will go in this am" in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department that "indicates it will be awhile (2016) before the State Department posts the e-mails."

While Mr Kadzik may have simply been alerting Mr Podesta to public events - the Judiciary Committee held an open hearing that day - the e-mail posted online on Wednesday (Nov 2) may contribute to assertions by Republican lawmakers that Justice Department and FBI officials have been too accommodating of Mrs Clinton during their investigation of the private e-mail server she used as secretary of state.

Mr Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesman who previously worked at the Justice Department, also got tips from contacts there about upcoming releases and court filings, according to previously released messages.

Spokesmen for the Clinton campaign and the Justice Department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

WikiLeaks has posted more than 43,000 purported e-mails stolen from Mr Podesta's private account, which the Clinton campaign has said was hacked by Russian government agents. They have declined to confirm the contents of individual documents, saying some may have been altered in an attempt to damage the campaign.

The WikiLeaks e-mail quickly entered the political debate on Wednesday, when Republican nominee Donald Trump said Mr Kadzik, a "close associate of John Podesta", was "feeding information" to Mrs Clinton's campaign.

Mr Kadzik, in his role as the Justice Department's liaison to Congress, wrote a letter to lawmakers on Monday, saying that the department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation would work together "and take appropriate steps as expeditiously as possible" to resolve the revived investigation of Mrs Clinton's e-mails that FBI director James Comey announced last week.

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