WASHINGTON — Hacked emails published by WikiLeaks reveal President Obama’s private email address in another potentially embarrassing document dump targeted at Democrats.
“WikiLeaks reveals first batch of US president Barack Obama emails sent via secret address,” WikiLeaks, the Julian Assange-founded open secrets site, tweeted Thursday — implying that even more of Obama’s private communications will be released.
The site published seven messages involving an email address purported to be that of the commander-in-chief: bobama@ameritech.net.
One exchange was dated the evening of Nov. 4, 2008 — Election Day. John Podesta, co-chair of Obama’s transition team, urges Obama not to accept an invitation to a G-20 meeting Nov. 15 on the global financial crisis should outgoing President George W. Bush invite him that night after Obama is officially elected.
Podesta attached a memo the transition team prepared weighing the pros and cons of going to the summit.
“Attendance alongside President Bush will create an extremely awkward situation,” the memo stated among the cons.
“On the chance that President Bush would raise this with you tonight, I wanted you to be aware that it is the unanimous recommendation for your advisors that you NOT attend,” Podesta added.
When the G-20 convened in Washington, Obama was absent.
An email message sent Thursday to Obama’s alleged address didn’t bounce back immediately — signaling it could still be a working account.
The White House declined comment. US intelligence authorities believe Russia orchestrated the widespread cyberattacks into Democratic Party-related emails. The Obama messages were among some 23,000 emails stolen from Podesta, who now serves as Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.
The tech-savvy Obama was allowed to keep a BlackBerry when he became president and just this year he was upgraded to a smartphone to replace the outdated technology. For security reasons, many of the smartphone’s functions — including texting, playing music, calling and taking photos — were disabled, Obama told “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon this year.
“So basically it’s like — does your 3-year-old have one of those play phones. It’s got, like, the stickers on it. That’s basically the phone I’ve got,” Obama said.
The alleged Obama emails are from 2008 when the young Illinois senator was about to win his historic White House bid and was assembling a transition team. The emails largely address staffing a transition economic team and adding diversity to a future Obama administration.
In one exchange dated Oct. 6, 2008, transition team member Mike Froman sends Obama an email with the subject line “Diversity” informing him he’s sending recommendations for senior-level positions for an Obama administration.
One list will be of women and another will be candidates who are “African American, Latino and Asian American candidates … Native Americans, Arab/Muslim Americans and Disabled Americans,” Froman wrote.
The same day, Podesta emailed Obama the contact information for Leon Panetta and Erskine Bowles.
In another email dated Oct. 30, 2008, with the subject of “economic staffing decisions,” Podesta floated choices for Obama’s team.
“First, should Daley or Tarullo run the interim economic staff team in the early days of the transition?,” Podesta emailed, presumably a reference to Daniel Tarullo, who joined the Federal Reserve Board in 2009, and William Daley, who was named to Obama’s transition economic advisory board and later was Obama’s chief of staff.
Podesta also asked Obama who should serve on the interim council: “You added Warren Buffett to the potential list. How do you want to proceed?” Podesta emails.
“I will give you an answer on this tomorrow,” was the reply signed “Barack” and followed by an automated standard footnote: “Sent via BlackBerry – a service from AT&T Wireless.”
Billionaire Buffett went on to serve on Obama’s transition economic advisory board.