The same Democratic law firm working with Google to provide people with election information helped the Obama administration to run a "pay for play" operation that could explain how ambassadorships were awarded during Hillary Clinton's tenure at the State Department, according to new leaked documents purportedly from the Democratic National Committee.
The revelation about the Seattle-based Perkins Coie was included in a batch of documents leaked Tuesday by Guccifer 2.0, a hacker who holds information on both the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Democrats have warned some of the papers might be counterfeit, but Guccier 2.0 has leaked other papers that were not disputed by Democrats.
The most explicit language was included in a May 18, 2016 email sent by Perkins Coie attorney Jacquelyn Lopez to staffers at the DNC, in which Lopez asked them to set up a call "to go over our process for handling donations from donors who have given us pay to play letters."
A separate document lists the presidential appointments that were doled out to donors. That list notes the highest bidder, Matthew Barzun, contributed $3.5 million to President Obama's first election in 2008, and subsequently received an appointment as America's ambassador to the United Kingdom and Sweden in August 2009.
Julius Genachowski, who donated a little more than $3.4 million, was appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in June 2009. Frank Sanchez, who donated nearly the same amount, was awarded a position as undersecretary at the Commerce Department in 2010.
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05.12.2025