Former Gov. Terry McAuliff’s (D) campaign on Thursday sought to “kill” the story of McAuliffe paying nearly $ 54,000 to Democratic election attorney Marc Elias in the last weeks of the Virginia gubernatorial election.
McAuliffe campaign employee Christina Freundlich wrote in an e-mail response entitled “Can we try to kill this” to a Fox News reporter – seemingly a mistake – when the reporter told her on Thursday about the nature of the $ 53,680 payment made by McAuliffe’s financial disclosures reveal was sent to the Elias Law Group on 14 October.
Freundlich then sent another email titled “Challenge the Election Challenges” and did not comment on the record for Fox News. The McAuliffe campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Breitbart News on the emails.
Fox News reporter: “I’m writing a story about a report that McAuliffe hired Marc Elias to challenge the election results […]”
McAuliffe spokesman: “Can we try to kill this?” pic.twitter.com/buSINd4wRn
– Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) October 29, 2021
After Fox News revealed the email exchange, Freundlich wrote in an unusual response on social media on Friday: “I think based on this story, it’s clear that we actually … killed the story”:
I think based on this story, it’s clear that we actually … killed the story https://t.co/rRCEzAL0Kj
– Christina Freundlich (@christinafreund) October 29, 2021
Elias was the leading lawyer for Democrats who sought to change the electoral rules ahead of the 2020 elections. In August 2021, Elias announced he left his current firm, Perkins Coie, to form his own law firm, where he continues to do legal work for a number of prominent Democrats, including, apparently, McAuliffe.
Elias was also a key figure in the ongoing investigation by Special Prosecutor John Durham of the FBI’s investigation into the alleged dealings between Trump and Russia. The lawyer, while in Perkins Coie, was hired by Hillary Clinton in 2016 to conduct an opposition investigation against then-candidate Donald Trump, which led to the infamous Steele dossier. Elias denied his involvement in the file, but he did Washington Post objected to his denials in the 2017 investigation report:
The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that led to a hitherto known dossier containing allegations of President Trump’s ties to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said.
Marc E. Elias, an attorney representing the Clinton campaign and DNC, retained Fusion GPS, Washington, to conduct the research.
After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer linked to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, say these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Because of Elias ’history of working to change electoral rules, but also because of his history difficult close election on behalf of the Democrats, Jonathan Turley, a lawyer at George Washington University, suggested McAuliffe could be “preparing to challenge every victory” of his opponent, Republican Glenn Youngkin.
McAuliffe was asked during the gubernatorial debate on September 16 if he would accept the election results if the state would confirm that he had lost. McAuliffe replied, “Of course. Definitely, but we will win. “
Breitbart News turned to McAuliffe’s campaign to reaffirm McAuliffe’s acceptance of the election results regardless of the outcome given Elias ’recent payment, but his campaign did not respond.
Write Ashley Oliver on [email protected].