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Did Clinton Team Leak ‘Access Hollywood’ Trump Tape? Wikileaks Email Suggests Democrats Held Tape For Months

By Tara West
Published on: 12:48 PST, Oct 14, 2016

With the presidential election just around the corner, both the Democrats and Republicans are pulling out all the stops as they attempt to capitalize on any negative information leaked about the opposing candidate. One of the most damaging pieces of information to come out on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is a leaked Access Hollywood tape in which Trump infamously proclaims that he was going to take a woman and “grab her by the p***y.” Though NBC has suggested that they only found the tape in October, a new Wikileaks email dump suggests that some in the Democrat party may have known about the tape as far back as May.

Wikileaks has slowly been releasing emails to and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. Many of the emails seem to focus on campaign strategies and ways to overcome specific Republican candidates. In one email, the Clinton campaign discusses “elevating” Trump within the Republican party as a means to discredit and force the “more established” candidates to move further to the right.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, the Democrats wanted to let the Republican part self-destruct by having the large field of Republican presidential hopefuls tear each other apart in a similar fashion to the 2012 election.

“There are two ways to approach the strategies mentioned above. The first is to use the field as a whole to inflict damage on itself similar to what happened to Mitt Romney in 2012.”

The second idea the Democrats focused on was “elevating” certain “Pied Piper” candidates which included Trump, Carson, and Cruz. The idea was that these candidates should be “taken seriously” by the media in a bid to make sure they were the leaders of the pack.

“The variety of candidates is a positive here, and many of the lesser known can serve as a cudgel to move the more established candidates further to the right. In this scenario, we don’t want to marginalize the more extreme candidates, but make them more ‘Pied Piper’ candidates who actually represent the mainstream of the Republican Party. Pied Piper candidates include, but aren’t limited to:

• Ted Cruz

• Donald Trump

• Ben Carson

We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to [take] them seriously.”

The strategy was designed to ensure that the established candidates moved their rhetoric more and more to the right, making them unable to resonate with “communities of color, women, and millennials.” While this strategy seemed to pay off, the Democrats had more up their sleeves in regards to discrediting their Republican competitors. The email also suggested that “any information on scandals or ethical lapses on the GOP candidates would serve well.” The emails go on to note that regarding scandals, the Democrats “won’t be picky.”

Though the Democrats were looking for evidence of ethical lapses and scandals on the candidates, the Clinton campaign has steadfastly denied claims that they were the ones to leak the now infamous Trump Access Hollywood video. Time Magazine reports that Clinton aides say they had “no advance knowledge” of the tapes and that they had “little direct influence” over Trump’s issues.

“Clinton aides said they had no advance knowledge of the tapes’ release, and they have had little direct influence over the Republican Party’s flailing in recent days.”

Despite the campaign claiming they had no advance knowledge of the tapes, at least one Wikileaks email suggests that the idea of Trump groping and kissing women in an unwanted fashion was not new. All the way back in May of 2016, a full five months before NBC supposedly stumbled upon the lewd footage, an email from the Democratic National Committee communications director indicated that the party was going to post fake Craigslist ads that play on some of Trump’s infamous “anti-women” speech.

In that fake Craigslist ad, the DNC uses some of Trump’s most notable “sexist” lines such as no pumping breast milk and no gaining weight. However, at the end of the ad, there is another section that is dedicated to the idea that Trump “gropes” and kisses women on the lips, even if they don’t like it. The subject matter seems incredibly similar to that of the most recently leaked tapes.

“We’re proud to maintain a ‘fun’ and ‘friendly’ work environment, where the boss is always available to meet with his employees. Like it or not, he may greet you with a kiss on the lips or grope you under the meeting table.”

The closeness of the fake DNC Craigslist ad to the Access Hollywood leak has had many Trump supporters suggesting that the DNC knew about the tape long before it was made public. Others are suggesting that it was Clinton’s campaign that leaked the tape in a bid to damage Trump’s presidential campaign.

What do you think? Do you believe the Clinton campaign aides that claim they had no idea of the footage before its release? Or do you think that the Wikileaks email shows that the DNC had at least some knowledge of the footage? Let us know you thoughts in the comments section below.

[Featured Image by Julio Cortez/AP Photo]

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