Inside the Clintons' weird world: Q-tip DJing for Chelsea's birthday party, Bill's secret eye problems, and a relationship with Goldman Sachs so cozy they helped find office space
- The emails from John Podesta's desk shed light on the Clintons' relationship with celebrities and with Wall Street
- One particularly colorful exchange was when rapper Q-Tip asked for a meeting with the former secretary of state and Clinton penciling him in
- Chelsea Clinton also discloses in a private email conversation that her father had cataract surgery, something not well publicized
- The Clinton Foundation's COO also tells top aide Huma Abedin that Goldman Sachs is holding onto office space for the foundation in New York
The trove of emails from the desk of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta has shed new light on the often secretive and celebrity-filled world of the Clintons.
Conversations range from scheduling a meeting with Q-Tip to Bill Clinton having under-the-radar cataract surgery to the folks at Goldman Sachs reserving office space to accommodate Clinton Foundation offices in New York City's Financial District.
Wikileaks has so far dumped three batches of Podesta's emails online, with the third release happening at 8:30 a.m. this morning.
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An email to John Podesta from the rapper Q-Tip's (left) office shows that he wanted to meet with Hillary Clinton and that he played DJ for Chelsea Clinton's (right) 25th birthday
John Podesta's emails released by Wikileaks show that Hillary Clinton sat down with 'Hip Hop icon and visionary' Q-Tip, at the rapper's request
One colorful request for a meeting with Hillary Clinton, as she ran for the Democratic nomination, came from the office of Q-Tip, dated August 29, 2015.
The rapper's assistant wrote to Podesta saying that the 'Hip Hop icon and visionary' would like to meet the Democratic frontrunner to 'discuss ways he can be used as a bridge to the Hip Hop generation during the 2016 presidential campaign.'
She sweetened the pitch by noting Q-Tip's commitment to social justice, his work with Harry Belafonte's Sankofa.org, which works on those issues, and the rapper's previous ties to the Clinton family.
'He is a big supporter of the work Mrs. Clinton has done throughout her career and has also worked alongside former president Bill Clinton at a 2003 DNC fundraiser,' the assistant wrote.
'He even served as DJ for Chelsea Clinton's 25th birthday party in 2005,' she added.
Shining a light on the tight-knit closed-door fundraising circuit, the assistant noted how Q-Tip has hoped to see the former secretary of state 'at his close friend Tory Burch's fundraiser tomorrow in The Hampton.'
Chelsea Clinton is captured in the Podesta emails revealing that her father had cataract surgery in 2011, which wasn't widely publicized
However, the rapper was stuck in Los Angeles due to a previous commitment and now wouldn't be able to attend.
'Q-Tip would love to have a short one-on-one with Mrs. Clinton as soon as her schedule permits,' the email reads. 'Q-Tip is passionate about helping Mrs. Clinton secure a victory in this presidential race.'
Another email in the Podesta pile, dated Nov. 19, 2015, proves that Q-Tip got his wish.
De'Ara Balenger, Hillary Clinton's director of engagement, gushes about the meeting between the candidate and the rapper.
'He was lovely and eloquent,' Balenger wrote. 'He talked to her about how it's important to let a young black kid in Harlem know how the events in Paris effect him, and how it's so important to connect with the millennial generation in ways that speak to them - being unique and authentic.'
Bill Clinton (right), pictured with daughter Chelsea (left), had cataract surgery in 2011, though talked about it on a trip to Athens in 2012
Balenger said the campaign laid the groundwork to potentially appear on Q-Tip's radio show, which airs on Apple Music station Beats 1.
'She remembered that he DJed Chelsea's bday party without prompting! She's amazing,' the aide said of the Democratic hopeful.
In another interesting conversation, a precursor to the secrecy surrounding Hillary Clinton's bout with pneumonia, Chelsea Clinton tells Podesta that her father has eye problems, something that wasn't well publicized.
'It turns out that my father has to have cataract surgery next week,' Chelsea Clinton explains as she tries to book a meeting between the ex-president and the future Clinton campaign chairman, who was heading the D.C. think tank, the Center for American Progress, at the time.
Bill Clinton does bring the surgery up, in July 2012, on a business trip to Athens as he spoke with Antonis Samaras, who was then the prime minister of Greece.
'I just had a cataract operation and it's a great thing you know about aging, all other aging processes, knee operations, hip operations, hair implants, everything is designed to slow your decline,' the ex-president pointed out. 'Only the cataract operation reverses it.'
'I now have a 20-year-old right eye,' Bill Clinton commented.
His wife, memorably, almost collapsed this year on Sept. 11, as she attended a ceremony for the fallen in New York.
Later the campaign was forced to admit the former secretary of state had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days prior, but didn't give the public or the press a heads up.
Another interesting email from the set shows the Clintons' cozy ties with Wall Street, including the big, brand-name bank Goldman Sachs.
In November 2011, the chief operating officer of the Clinton Foundation Laura Graham writes to Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin about finding new office space.
Graham says she's walked through space available in New York's Financial District, but another party was interested in leasing it.
'Goldman, b/c of their relationship with us, is delaying the drafting of a lease for this interested party until they get a better sense from us but they cannot hold them off too much longer,' Graham revealed to Abedin.
Graham was trying to assess what Hillary Clinton's needs might be for this expanded foundation space.
'In meantime, Genzler via Goldman Sachs is awaiting our details to do test fit options,' Graham wrote, confirming that it was indeed someone, likely Gary Gensler, doing the Clintons a favor.
Some of the Clinton Foundation offices had already moved to that address, according to a piece in the New York Times, in March of that year.
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