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Hillary campaign pans ‘Clinton Cash’ author for comments at Koch event

by Ben Kamisar - 05/01/15 7:09 PM ET

The Hillary Clinton campaign is hitting back against Peter Schweizer, the author of a controversial book that questions Clinton’s impartiality while at the State Department, attacking him for referring to himself as part of the conservative cause.

The Clinton camp has honed in on Schweizer’s comments at a 2014 summit sponsored by the conservative multimillionaire donors Charles and David Koch, where he gave attendees a call to action.

“Politicians today are not going to let up, the left and the academic sphere is not going to let up,” he said, according to the Lady Libertine blog, which has released a number of audio tracks of prominent conservatives speaking at the retreat.

{mosads}“The question is: Are we going to let up? And I would contend to you that we cannot let up.”

Brian Fallon, the Clinton campaign’s national press secretary, bashed the comments as indicative of political motivations.

“This is the clearest evidence yet that this widely discredited book is part of a coordinated Republican attack strategy,” he told The Hill exclusively.

“The author’s remarks at a Koch fundraiser pull the curtain back on his true purpose in going after Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.”

A Clinton aide added that the campaign plans to highlight the quote on social media.

Schweizer also told the audience during his remarks that “the left doesn’t dislike you or hate you because of what you do, they dislike you and hate you because of who you are.”

Kurt Bardella, who helps represent Schweizer, said the comments don’t undercut Schweizer’s message about Clinton’s tenure.

“Ask former Rep. Spencer Bachus, former Speaker Dennis Hastert, Sen. Roy Blunt. current Speaker John Boehner, soon to be Jeb Bush, and a host of other Republicans who’ve been featured on Schweizer’s 60 Minutes and book investigations whether Schweizer investigates Republican cronyism and corruption,” he told The Hill.

“The real politically motivated attacks are coming from Team Clinton as they try the tired and, at this point, very desperate strategy of drawing attention to things that have been in the public domain for sometime in the hopes that Bill and Hillary can continue avoiding the press and their questions.”

The Clinton camp’s criticism comes as liberals and conservatives spar over the revelations in Schweizer’s book. He lays out a number of instances where Clinton Foundation donors directly benefited from Clinton’s conduct as secretary of State and repeatedly said in media appearances that the evidence suggests she played favorites.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who’s in the midst of his own presidential candidacy, has repeatedly called for an investigation into Clinton’s conduct at State based off of the allegations.

Fellow White House hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has called for her foundation for return all foreign donations in light of the accusations.

But Clinton allies and other Democrats have panned the book as politically motivated and Fallon previously told the New York Times that its allegations of favoritism are “baseless.”

Tags Hillary Clinton