CAP Gets Revenge Against Trump in New Report

The Clinton-friendly think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) suffered a big blow when Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency, but it is not giving up its battle to bring down Mr. Trump.  Here is more from BuzzFeed:

A major progressive think tank wants Democrats to stop being shy about accusing the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia.

The Center for American Progress has written a nearly 50-page report for Democrats in Congress, making the case for collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia. The report, a draft of which was reviewed by BuzzFeed News ahead of its release Wednesday, makes the bold claim that “it is now clear there was collusion” and “this is the biggest political scandal in American history.”

CAP’s report, which includes several appendices linking to news reports and quotes from the Trump administration, does not include any new information, but it does represent a push for a dramatic change of tone for Democrats in Congress.

The draft of CAP’s report lays out everything the public knows about how the Trump campaign and Russia interacted during the campaign based on information gathered from press reports and congressional testimony. According to CAP, the evidence should be enough for Democrats to argue the campaign colluded with Russia.

CAP’s plan is to deliver the report to “key offices” on the Hill with the hope of giving Democrats the “confidence” to make a collusion argument. Jentleson said Democratic leadership, as well as members of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees in the House and Senate, will be receiving the report.

Update: Here is a link to CAP's new report, entitled "Russiagate: The Depth of Collusion," written by Max Bergmann.

Here is how Fox News describes the report.

Speakers Announced for CAP's Ideas Conference

The much-anticipated Ideas Conference - what Politico is calling the Center for American Progress's (CAP) response to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) - will take place next week.  Here are some details:

The Ideas Conference, the Center for American Progress’s response to CPAC, will be held at the Four Seasons in Georgetown on May 16.  Among the speakers: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)

More details can be found here.  Think Tank Watch's previous post on the Ideas Conference, which is also being called "CPAC for Liberals," can be found here.

PBS notes that the Democrats' next nominee for president could very well be speaking at the upcoming think tank conference.

Update: A video of the conference as well as a list of all the speakers can be found here.

Dem Think Tank Organizes Own CPAC for Liberals

The liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) is organizing a major conference in May with the goal of organizing Democrats in order to develop policy goals that will eventually bring Democrats back into power.  Here is more from Politico:

Instead of CPAC, it’ll be the Ideas Conference. Instead of taking place at National Harbor, it’ll be in the main room at the St. Regis Hotel, a few blocks from the White House. Instead of featuring President Donald Trump, it’ll be the first real cattle call of the Democrats nosing around 2020 presidential runs.

And it’ll be the Center for American Progress’ biggest move yet to establish itself as both the nexus of the Democratic Party’s future — and a player trying to shape what that future will be.

They’re modeling the event roughly on the Conservative Political Action Conference, the American Conservative Union’s annual gathering that’s become a prime stop for Republican leaders, and that notably gave Donald Trump his first major political platform as he was entering the fray.

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; Montana Gov. Steve Bullock; and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti are all confirmed to attend, and more are expected to be added to the event, scheduled for May 16.

Speakers have been encouraged to come with substantive proposals on the economy, climate change, national security, civil rights, reproductive rights and immigration rather than just political attacks on Trump. Sprinkled through the day will be panel discussions and conversations that will bring in activists and leaders of new organizations.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece on CAP's pivot after Donald Trump won the presidency, and here is another piece on the future of the think tank in the Trump presidency.

Democratic Powerhouse Think Tank Faces Uncertain Future

The liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) has some soul-searching to do.

Here is more from National Journal:

As CAP and its sister advocacy group, the CAP Action Fund, dig in for battle, their role and stature on the Left are less certain after the embarrassing failure of a presidential campaign so closely associated with the group’s past and current leadership. The organization is deeply tied to the Clinton orbit and the Democratic establishment more broadly, and was widely thought to be a staging ground for a future Hillary Clinton White House. CAP founder and former president John Podesta was the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, served as chief of staff in her husband’s White House, and was an adviser to President Obama.

CAP's current position in think tank land is very different from that of its arch nemesis, the Heritage Foundation.  Here is a recent Wall Street Journal piece on Heritage's new clout, and a Politico piece on how Heritage is a "driving force" as Trump staffs up.

Here is a Politico piece on how CAP is focusing on its anti-Trump efforts.  Here is a CNN piece on CAP's "reorganization" efforts in the new Trump era.

Here is CAP Action Fund's "Trump Transition Tracker" - a digital guide to resisting Trump.

CAP Pivots from Thinking to Attacking

In the time period of about one month, the liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) has done a super-quick pivot from being Hillary Clinton's brain to being the top think tank assailant of Donald Trump.

Here is more from Politico:

Looking to build itself into a nerve center for the anti-Donald Trump resistance, the liberal Center for American Progress think tank is relaunching its advocacy-focused arm Thursday and bringing on a longtime senior aide to Sen. Harry Reid to help lead the charge.

Adam Jentleson, Reid’s deputy chief of staff, will work to steer the new war room at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which its leaders hope will provide Democrats with a centralized resource to oppose the president-elect’s moves — starting with his Cabinet nominations.

The reorientation comes at a difficult inflection point not only for Democrats, but for the constellation of left-leaning organizations that pepper the Washington landscape and that fully expected to be advising Hillary Clinton’s White House transition team at this point. CAP’s move, landing Thursday to mark the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Bill of Rights, is one of the most significant in a series of pushes into a world where Democrats are once again the opposition.

Now, the group will be hiring researchers as it promotes its Trump transition tracker, which is intended to “empower readers and users to oppose Trump nominees” by informing them about activities that are being organized to stand in the way of appointments, explained Action Fund Deputy Director Igor Volsky.

Its website — separate from CAP's ThinkProgress news blog that has grown 33 percent in circulation since Trump’s win — will also track Trump’s conflicts of interest and will include resources like petitions and tools allowing readers to send messages to relevant elected officials.

CAP, steeling reeling from Mrs. Clinton's crushing loss to Donald Trump, had been pounding out reports to guide the Clinton Administration and was readying a slew of experts to go into the administration.  Now, it is stuck acting as an attack dog and a waiting room for Democrats who hope to regain power in 2020 or 2024.

Scholar Distancing Himself From "Partisan" CAP

Think Tank Watch just found this on WikiLeaks.  It is an email message from Korin Davis, the Academic Programs Manager at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth (WCEG; a think tank originally housed within the Center for American Progress) to Heather Boushey, the Executive Director and Chief Economist at WCEG:

You asked me to send you an email summarizing our support of Danny Yagan and his decisions regarding that funding. In brief, Danny Yagan was awarded a $15,000 grant as one of our 2014 young scholars. The grant was announced in June and the check was mailed in early September, at which point Danny had joined the faculty of UC Berkeley. We recently learned that he had not cashed the check because he was surprised to find that it came from CAP and was reticent to personally accept money from a partisan organization. He asked if we could route the funding through UC Berkeley, so as to alter the optics. He is more comfortable if "CAP" is supporting UC Berkeley, rather than him directly. Processing payment this way means that UC Berkeley will take a portion of the funding, as is the case with all institutional grant arrangements. Danny was willing to relinquish a sizeable portion of his funding (I don't know the exact percentage) in order to distance himself from CAP.

Here is a response from Elisabeth Jacobs, Senior Director of Policy at WCEG:

Thanks for this, Korin. I think the only other point worth (re)emphasizing here is the fact that Danny is (as best as I can tell, at least) "on our side." In other words, my sense is that he's not someone who takes issue with what CAP does or the positions they take. He's just very wary of the implications of the affiliation for his professional career, given that he is an early-career academic, with a great deal of potential in elite academic economic circles. In other words, he's got a lot to lose, and sees CAP as a risk. The upside: He doesn't see Equitable Growth as the same risk. We need to preserve that! 

Danny Yagan was one of 16 scholars who received a WCEG grant in 2014 "to accelerate cutting-edge analysis in whether and how structural changes in the US economy affect economic growth."

At that time, WCEG, which was founded by John Podesta, was housed within the Center for American Progress.  Now it is independent of CAP.  However, that does not mean it is an independent think tank.  It is absolutely a liberal think tank and still has extremely close ties to Democrats (and CAP).

After all, Mr. Podesta is Chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and Heather Boushey is the Chief Economist for Clinton's transition team.

UAE Embassy Paid CAP 700K for Favorable Think Tank Report?

Another day and another pay-for-play scheme at a Washington think tank.  The most recent example comes from LobeLog, a blog named after longtime journalist Jim Lobe.  Here are some excerpts:

...Now it turns out that the foreign ministry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) may well have helped draft the latest Middle East report by the “liberal” Center for American Progress (CAP). (The hyper-interventionist and highly confusing Washington Post has since endorsed the report in its lead editorial Sunday.)

Eli [Clifton] made a startling discovery in plain view within the report itself. One of its co-authors, Muath Al Wari, currently a “Senior Policy Analyst with the National Security and International Policy Team” at CAP, served in the UAE Embassy in Washington from 2009 and 2011 and, more recently, at “the Supreme National Security Council of the United Arab Emirates, where he focused on regional security in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings.”

Al Wari, who incidentally authored two reports about the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) since joining CAP, helped develop the Emirates’ strategy on the Arab Spring, a movement that CAP and Katulis generally welcomed as offering an unprecedented opportunity for democratization, liberalization, and accountability throughout the region.

Tom Caiazza, associate director of media relations at CAP, told LobeLog that “The Embassy of the UAE in DC contributed $699,000 to CAP in 2016 with no contributions coming in 2015.” That contribution wasn’t disclosed in the report as posing a potential conflict of interest.

The piece, which was co-written by reporter Eli Clifton, goes on to say that the revelations raise serious questions about how much financial and other contributions by certain countries are influencing think tanks.

Needless to say, the UAE and numerous other countries have collectively donated millions of dollars to Washington's most powerful think tanks over the years and have strong relations with top think tank chiefs.

The above-mentioned CAP report was released just as think tanks have begun to ramp up production of policy papers meant to influence the new administration.

One thing is clear: The media needs to do a better job in citing and referencing think tanks and think tank scholars.

More on the CAP report can be found from The Intercept's Zaid Jilani in a piece entitled "At Hillary Clinton's Favorite Think Tank, a Doubling Down on Anti-Iran, Pro-Saudi Policy."  Jim Lobe also wrote a previous piece entitled "For the Middle East, It's the Center for American Regress."

More on the funding of think tanks by Gulf countries can be found here (via Quorum Centre).  More on the rampant pay-for-play culture at think tanks can be found here.

Leaked Emails Show Inside Operations of Influential Think Tank

The founder of one of the US's most influential think tanks was recently hacked and thousands of his emails have been released to the public, with many more to come.

John Podesta, the founder of the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), who sits on the think tanks Board of Directors, is the Chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Here is some recent coverage of the hack:

• Leaked emails highlight close ties between Clinton campaign and leading Democratic think tank. 
• Washington Post: CAP officials have played prominent behind-the-scenes role assisting Clinton; Tanden offered CAP's resources; says advising campaign in her personal capacity.
• Politico is liveblogging the email leaks.
• Podesta said Russian spies hacked his email to sway the election.
• Here is what CBS News has to say.
• Daily Caller says that the "liberal media" is ignoring the leaks.
• Washington Post reporter spiked info. about Podesta conflicts of interest.
• Here is The Hill coverage on the leaks.
• The Washington Examiner notes that John Podesta's brother, Tony Podesta, had special access to the White House.
• Politico reports that Podesta accused Roger Stone of colluding with WikiLeaks. 
• The Intercept: CAP advised Clinton team against $15 minimum wage. 
• Washington Examiner: CAP head faces liberal wrath after email leak.
• Daily Caller: ThinkProgress trashes a climate expert's career to appease a Hillary donor.
• The Weekly Standard: Liberal think tank freaks out.
• CNN's Jake Tapper rips into Podesta, ThinkProgress over "untrue" reporting.
• Washington Free Beacon: Liberal think tank freaked out at SNL's criticism of donors.
• Fox: Clinton think tank ally emerges in emails as scathing critic.
• Podesta on Nicki Minaj: "Booty Equity."
• Is the age of Neeras and Human upon us?
• Washington Post's Dan Zak refers to CAP as "brain box." 
• The Intercept: At Hillary's favorite think tank a doubling down on anti-Iran, pro-Saudi policy.
• Greenpeace sought Podesta's help to reach out to India's Modi.
• Leaks Lay Bare a Longtime Clinton Adviser's Unflinching Straight Talk.

The emails can be found on WikiLeaks, a number of which reference CAP.

Even with all the leaked emails, Politico said today that John Podesta still tops the list to be Clinton's chief of staff.  CAP's current president and CEO, Neera Tanden (described as Clinton's "go-to brain trust on domestic policy issues), is also near the top of the list for that position.

The First Rule of Getting a Job with Clinton: Know John Podesta

The first rule of getting a job in the Clinton Administration: Know John Podesta, the founder of the think tank Center for American Progress (CAP).

Here is more from Politico:

 If you're wondering how to get a job in a Hillary Clinton White House, start by reading campaign chairman John Podesta's hacked emails.

From a billionaire plugging a federal official for a cabinet appointment to Podesta himself plugging the daughter of a friend for an internship, the trove of Podesta’s correspondence posted by WikiLeaks is a portrait of Washington insiderism, showing powerful people turning into supplicants using connections and flattery.

A new president has 4,000 political appointments to dole out. And as Podesta went from running a think tank to serving as a counselor to Barack Obama to joining the Clinton campaign, everybody from high-ranking officials to college undergraduates jockeyed to get themselves or their friends onto his radar.

In 2014 Podesta himself appeared to put in a good word with his former Center for American Progress colleagues on behalf of the daughter of a friend who had recently applied to an internship at the think tank. She ended up getting the internship, according to the email.

As you can see, if also pays to know Mr. Podesta when you want to work at CAP, a think tank that houses many scholars who will likely soon be working in a Clinton Administration.

Pro-Clinton Think Tank Helps Launch New National Security Initiaitve

The liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) is flexing its muscles once again in its ongoing attempt to help Hillary Clinton become president of the United States.  Here is more:

The political arm of the Center for American Progress, a leading progressive group that is aligned with Hillary Clinton, is bringing together major Democratic figures in national security to focus attention on the stakes of the election and to highlight what they see as the damaging potential of a Trump presidency.

The project, called the National Security Leadership Alliance, will be funded by C.A.P. Action. It will feature a roster of major members of the foreign policy and national security community, including two retired four-star generals; Leon E. Panetta, the former C.I.A. director; Madeleine K. Albright, the former secretary of state; Eric H. Holder Jr., the former attorney general; and Carl Levin, the former Michigan senator. All have endorsed Mrs. Clinton.

There will be an effort to highlight precisely what, in the military arsenal, Donald J. Trump would have access to as president. Mr. Trump has been criticized for his views on foreign policy, criticisms that have been central to the case that Mrs. Clinton has made against him in an effort to describe the stakes of the 2016 presidential election. The Center for American Progress is led by a top outside adviser to Mrs. Clinton, Neera Tanden, and the new project seeks to put a spotlight on what officials are calling a progressive foreign policy vision.

Ms. Tanden has long been rumored to be a possible pick for the chief of staff position under a Clinton Administration.  Here is a link to the NSLA's new website.  Here is a press release about the NSLA launch.

CAP President Passed Secrets to Clinton

Here is more from Politico:

As President Barack Obama's signature health-care reform proposal bogged down in Congress in 2009, Clinton paid close attention.

In a May 26, 2009 email, longtime Clinton adviser Neera Tanden passed on "hush hush" information that the Senate Finance Committee was considering a variant of the so-called "public option" — one or more government-run health-care plans that could exist alongside private ones. Tanden said she was pushing for a "cost trigger" that would allow a public plan if costs went too high.

"All of this is super secret," wrote Tanden, then part of the health care legislative team at the Department of Health and Human Services. Ultimately, no public option was part of the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress in 2010.

Tanden also indicated in the same email exchange that she was ready to make sure Clinton got credit if some of her policy ideas emerged in the final bill.

"Lots of things could fall in the direction of your campaign proposal — a mandate with a smallish version of the exclusion along with a premium cap. That's by no means assured, but if it does break that way, I will try to ensure I'm not the only one who notices (between us, of course)," Tanden wrote.

Neera Tanden, who had very close ties to the Clintons and the Obama Administration, is now the head of the Center for American Progress (CAP).  She recently said that she wants to see a half-female for the next US president.

CAP is said to be the go-to policy shop for Hillary Clinton, and the liberal think tank would likely play a huge role in a Clinton presidency.

Now Unionized: Center for American Progress

The liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP), which has deep ties to Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration, has unionized with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE).

Here is more from Huffington Post:

Workers at the influential liberal think tank unionized with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the union told The Huffington Post. Leadership at CAP voluntarily recognized the staffers' request, enabling them to avoid a secret-ballot election. Management will now bargain with the union.

"It reflects our progressive values," Alyssa Peterson, a CAP staffer who works on poverty issues, said of the decision to unionize. "We saw it as a natural extension of our institutional support for collective bargaining."

The move comes just four months after the staff of ThinkProgress, CAP's popular, left-leaning news site, announced that they were unionizing. That campaign was part of a wave of six successful union drives at digital media outlets over the past year, including The Huffington Post. 

CAP staffers had talked for years about organizing into a union, though discussions began in earnest in May, according to Peterson.

Neera Tanden, CAP's current president, reportedly said that the think tank's management remained neutral about the decision, and Huffington Post notes it would have been scandalous if pro-union CAP had not.

IFPTE already represents other think tanks such as the union-backed Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

Netanyahu's Think Tank Balancing Act: AEI & CAP

When heads of state and foreign leaders come to Washington, it is customary for them these days to do a bit of the think tank circuit.

As Think Tank Watch reported earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu will be coming to the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on November 9 to pick up the 2015 Irving Kristol Award.

But in a new twist, he will also be visiting the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), a think tank with extremely close ties to the Clintons and the Obama Administration.  Here is more from Foreign Policy:

Call it think tank diplomacy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to Washington for a Nov. 9 meeting with President Barack Obama — the first between the two leaders since they engaged in a bruising and protracted feud over the Iran nuclear deal.

Netanyahu has been under pressure to try to repair his battered relationship with Obama and other leading Democrats and raised eyebrows when he scheduled an event at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) for the same day. Perhaps mindful of the poor optics, Netanyahu has settled on a simple way of trying to defuse the controversy: giving an address to the liberal Center for American Progress, which announced Tuesday that it, too, would host the Israeli leader during his November visit.

The decision to visit the liberal think tank is being welcomed by some pro-Israel Democrats, who have urged Netanyahu to try to strengthen his ties to the American left. Critics of the hard-line leader, though, said they doubted he’d use the address to announce any substantive policy shifts.

Initial liberal complaints about Netanyahu’s upcoming visit emerged when the Israeli government announced that the prime minister would visit AEI the same day as his meeting at the White House. AEI is a prominent conservative think tank in Washington that routinely blasts Obama’s policies and maintains relationships with a wide array of veterans of the George W. Bush administration. In September, it hosted former Vice President Dick Cheney, who said the Iran deal was “madness.”

The center’s decision to host Netanyahu has rankled some employees of the progressive research organization. “I’m not thrilled with the idea of giving Netanyahu a platform, but as long as his ideas are challenged in an open way, I think it’s healthy,” said an employee who works in the center’s network.

The Huffington Post has some pretty in-depth reporting on how CAP was able to land Netanyahu for a policy address.  The general conclusion is that it took a lot of lobbying from the Israeli Embassy as well as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).  Here is more:

As part of the tour, the Israeli government pushed hard for an invite to the Center for American Progress and landed an event at the progressive institution on Nov. 10, the day after Netanyahu has a scheduled meeting with Obama. The embassy's push for the invite, sources familiar with the lobbying said, was joined by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which also applied pressure to CAP to allow Netanyahu to speak.

Some current and former CAP employees were disappointed by the news of Netanyahu’s upcoming visit, which was first floated Tuesday by the Jewish Insider, a newsletter on Jewish politics. Multiple sources confirmed the news to The Huffington Post. (Tanden declined to comment.)

“He’s looking for that progressive validation,” said a former CAP staffer, “and they’re basically validating a guy who race-baited during his election and has disavowed the two-state solution, which is CAP’s own prior work."

 “This is someone who is an enemy of the progressive agenda, who has targeted Israeli human rights organizations throughout his term, and was re-elected on the back of blatant anti-Arab race-baiting,” echoed Matt Duss, who used to work at CAP and now heads the Foundation for Middle East Peace. “The idea that CAP would agree to give him bipartisan cover is really disappointing.”

As part of the effort to restore Netanyahu’s clout with Democrats, the Israeli embassy reached out to Tanden, the president of CAP, requesting the institution host the prime minister during his November trip. AIPAC, which has paid for multiple CAP employees to visit Israel, followed up to pressure the think tank on the request.

CAP’s relationship with AIPAC and its allies is fraught. Three years ago, CAP employed policy analyst Matt Duss, and its publication ThinkProgress employed Ali Gharib and Eli Clifton; all three wrote controversial pieces challenging the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Pro-Israel lobbyists pushed hard against CAP, and all three felt the pressure and have since left.

Some former staffers have criticized CAP for not engaging aggressively enough in the Iran debate, a contention those involved in the fight say is simply inaccurate, and doesn't account for both its public statements and behind-the-scenes work. 

Netanyahu is among many of the world's prime ministers and presidents who have recently visited Washington, DC's top think tanks.  For example, on October 27, Indonesian President Joko Widodo spoke at the Brookings Institution.  And earlier this month, South Korean President Park Geun-hye spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Here is a link to CAP's Netanyahu event on November 10.

Update: Here is what The Washington Free Beacon has to say about Netanyahu speaking at CAP.  And here is what The Nation is saying about the upcoming speech in an piece written by former CAP staffer Ali Gharib entitled "Why Is the Center For American Progress Hosting Benjamin Netanyahu."  It notes that MoveOn has started a petition to disinvite Netanyahu to CAP.  As of this writing, the petition had more than 700 signatures.

Update: Los Angeles Times: CAP should host Netanyahu.

Update: Foreign Policy: "Netanyahu Visit Sparks Internal Backlash at Powerhouse DC Think Tank."  CAP held an all-staff meeting Friday on the Netanyahu speech, and at the end of the meeting, around a dozen CAP employees stood up and delivered an impassioned joint statement criticizing CAP's decision to host Netanyahu.  The article also notes that the Arab American Institute and Jewish Voice for Peace has have issued an open letter to CAP criticizing the think tank for hosting Netanyahu.

Update: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is planning to picket outside of CAP's office on Nov. 10.

Update: Washington Post: CAP under fire for hosting Netanyahu.

Update: Jeffrey Goldberg says that Netanyahu should speak at CAP.

Brookings Head Has "Direct Line" to Hillary Clinton

New reporting about the ongoing saga of Hillary Clinton's emails while at the State Department has uncovered some interesting nuggets about Clinton's close ties to think tankers.  One of her closest ties is with Strobe Talbott, the current head of the Brookings Institution.  Here is an excerpt:

The emails underscored the privileged status of having Mrs. Clinton’s direct address. Strobe Talbott, the former deputy secretary of state who now heads the Brookings Institution, wrote to her directly, expressing concerns that “time-sensitive messages” were not getting through Ms. [Cheryl] Mills’s State Department email.

Mr. Talbott became friends with Bill Clinton when both were Rhodes Scholars at the University of Oxford. Talbott went on to become Deputy Secretary of State under Mr. Clinton.

Interestingly, Strobe Talbott's wife, Brooke Shearer, also had access to Hillary Clinton's email address.  Shearer was a former aide to Hillary Clinton.

Moreover, Center for American Progress (CAP) President Neera Tanden also had access to Hillary's email address.