title: sanders calls trump political coward over voter suppression report
text: zero hedge october   
  in the latest revelation sure to reignite accusations of collusion between the clinton campaign and the doj among the recent batch of hacked emails released by wikileaks we learn that the day after hillary clinton testified in front of the house select committee on benghazi last october john podesta hillarys campaign chairman met for dinner with a small group of wellconnected friends including peter kadzik  who is currently a top official at the us justice department serving as assistant attorney general for legislative affairs 
  peter kadzik with lobbyist tony podesta brother of john podesta  
  the postbenghazi dinner was attended by podesta kadzik superlobbyist vincent roberti and other wellplaced beltway fixtures the first mention of personal contact between podesta and kadzik in the wikileaks dump is in an oct   email sent out by vincent roberti a lobbyist who is close to podesta and his superlobbyist brother tony podesta in it roberti refers to a dinner reservation at posto a washington dc restaurant the dinner was set for  that evening just one day after clinton gave  hours of testimony to the benghazi committee  
  podesta and kadzik met several months later for dinner at podestas home another email shows  another email sent on may    kadziks son asked podesta for a job on the clinton campaign 
  as the daily caller notes  the dinner arrangement is just the latest example of an apparent conflict of interest between the clinton campaign and the federal agency charged with investigating the former secretary of states email practices as one former us attorney tells told the dc the exchanges are another example of the clinton campaigns cozy relationship with the obama justice department 
  the hacked emails confirm that podesta and kadzik were in frequent contact in one email from january kadzik and podesta who were classmates at georgetown law school in the s discussed plans to celebrate podestas birthday and in another sent last may kadziks son emailed podesta asking for a job on the clinton campaign a d v e r t i s e m e n t 
  the political appointees in the obama administration especially in the department of justice appear to be very partisan in nature and i dont think had clean hands when it comes to the investigation of the private email server says matthew whitaker the executive director of the foundation for accountability and civic trust a government watchdog group 
   its the kind of thing the american people are frustrated about is that the politically powerful have insider access and have these kind of relationships that ultimately appear to always break to the benefit of hillary clinton  he added comparing the podestakadzik meetings to the revelation that attorney general loretta lynch met in private with bill clinton at the airport in phoenix days before the fbi and doj investigating hillary clinton 
  kadziks role at the doj where he started in  is particularly notable kadzik as helped spearhead the effort to nominate lynch who was heavily criticized for her secret meeting with the former president 
  a long friendly history 
  podesta and kadzik have a long history one which has surprisingly gone mostly unnoticed during the ongoing clinton email scandal as dc helps summarize kadzik represented podesta during the monica lewinsky investigation and in the waning days of the bill clinton administration kadzik lobbied podesta on behalf of marc rich the fugitive who bill clinton controversially pardoned on his last day in office 
  that history is cited by podesta in another email hacked from his gmail account in a sept  email  which the washington free beacon flagged last week podesta emailed an obama campaign official to recommend kadzik for a supportive role in the campaign podesta who would later head up the obama white house transition effort wrote that kadzik was a fantastic lawyer who  kept me out of jail 
  as the dc chuck ross notes it is unclear to which case podesta was referring and whether he was joking about prison but podesta was caught in a sticky situation in both the lewinsky affair and the rich pardon scandal as deputy chief of staff to clinton in  podesta asked thenunited nations ambassador bill richardson to hire the yearold lewinsky  in april  the white house transferred lewinsky from her job as a white house intern to the pentagon in order to keep her and bill clinton separate but the clinton team also wanted to keep lewinsky happy so that she would not spill the beans about her sexual relationship with clinton 
  richardson later recounted in his autobiography that he offered lewinsky the position but that she declined it 
  podesta made false statements to a grand jury impaneled by independent counsel kenneth starr for the investigation but he defended the falsehoods saying later that he was merely relaying false information from clinton that he did not know was inaccurate at the time he did lie to me podesta said about clinton in a national public radio interview in  clinton was acquitted by the senate in feb  of perjury and obstruction of justice charges related to the lewinsky probe kadzik then a lawyer with the firm dickstein shapiro morin  oshinsky represented podesta through the fiasco 
  podesta had been promoted to clintons chief of staff when he and kadzik became embroiled in another scandal 
  kadzik was then representing marc rich a billionaire financier who was wanted by the us government for evading a  million tax bill the fugitive who was also implicated in illegal trading activity with nations that sponsored terrorism had been living in switzerland for  years when he sought the pardon to help rich kadzik lobbied podesta heavily in the weeks before clinton left office on jan   a house oversight committee report released in may  stated that kadzik was recruited into marc richs lobbying campaign because he was a longtime friend of white house chief of staff john podesta 
  the report noted that kadzik contacted podesta at least seven times regarding richs pardon 
  on top of the allhandsondeck lobbying effort richs exwife denise rich had doled out more than  million to the clintons and other democrats prior to the pardon she gave  to hillary clintons new york senate campaign and another  to the clinton presidential library 
  kadziks current role 
  in his current role as head of the office of legislative affairs kadzik handles inquiries from congress on a variety of issues in that role he was not in the direct chain of command on the clinton investigation the justice department and fbi have insisted that career investigators oversaw the investigation which concluded in july with no charges filed against clinton 
  but kadzik worked on other clinton email issues in his dealings with congress last november he denied a request from republican lawmakers to appoint a special counsel to lead the investigation  
  in a feb   letter in response to kadzik florida rep ron desantis noted that kadzik had explained that special counsel may be appointed at the discretion of the attorney general when an investigation or prosecution by the department of justice would create a potential conflict of interest 
  desantis a republican suggested that lynchs appointment by bill clinton in  as us attorney in new york may be considered a conflict of interest he also asserted that obamas political appointees  a list which includes kadzik  are being asked to impartially execute their respective duties as department of justice officials that may involve an investigation into the activities of the forerunner for the democratic nomination for president of the united states  
  it is unknown if kadzik responded to desantis questions 
  kadziks first involvement in the clinton email brouhaha came in a sept   response letter to senate judiciary committee chairman chuck grassley in which he declined to confirm or deny whether the doj was investigating clinton last month politico reported that kadzik angered republican lawmakers when in a classified briefing he declined to say whether clinton aides who received doj immunity were required to cooperate with congressional probes 
  kadzik also testified at a house oversight committee hearing last month on the issue of classifications and redactions in the fbis files of the clinton email investigation this article was posted wednesday october   at  am share this article