Buster

Leaked E-Mail Shows Top DNC Official's Interest In Whether Bernie Sanders Believes In A God

Included in the nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee e-mails posted today by Wikileaks is a recent request from a top party official to “get someone to ask” Bernie Sanders about whether he believes “in a God.”

Seen below, the May 5 e-mail from Brad Marshall, the DNC’s chief financial officer, was addressed to three fellow staffers, including Amy Dacey, the party’s chief executive officer.

Writing in advance of the West Virginia (May 10) and Kentucky (May 17) Democratic presidential primaries, Marshall asked, “can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”

While the e-mail does not mention Sanders by name, it seems obvious that he is the individual whose religious preference was of concern to Marshall.

In reply to the e-mail, Dacey wrote "AMEN."

In addition to Dacey, the e-mail was sent to Luis Miranda, the DNC’s communications director, and his deputy, Mark Paustenbach. Marshall appears to be suggesting that the men recruit a reporter to question Sanders about his religious beliefs.

The Marshall e-mail is the latest leaked document showing DNC staffers appearing to do Hillary Clinton’s bidding while Sanders was still in the race. Party officials are not supposed to favor one Democratic candidate over another during primary contests.

The e-mails provided to Wikileaks appear to have been among the material lifted from the DNC’s servers by the hacker calling himself “Guccifer 2.0.” In a June 15 e-mail to TSG, the hacker wrote that, “The main part of the [DNC] papers, thousands of files and mails, I gave to Wikileaks. They will publish them soon.”