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WikiLeaks on Thursday released nearly 2,000 emails it says hacked from the campaign of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, bringing the total number of the hacked emails released in the past week to roughly 9,000.
The Thursday release is the sixth publication by WikiLeaks, which issued two separate batches on Wednesday following one per week day heading back to last Friday, hours after a tape recording Republican nominee Donald Trump's lewd women remarks went public.
WikiLeaks says it has some 50,000 of such messages in total, all stolen from the archive of Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta.
The anti-secret group intends to release these hacked emails bit by bit for maximum political effect, said a The Hill daily news report.
Clinton's campaign has refused to verify the authenticity of the emails, which stretch back for years, claiming that their release is evidence of Russia in a bid to help Trump win White House. Russia has denied the claim.
The leaked emails, including excerpts of previously secret speeches Clinton gave to Wall Street and a joke about Catholic, have embarrassed the Clinton campaign but so far been deeply overshadowed by Trump's leaked lewd remarks on women and the split of Republican Party as a result.
Four women in the past 24 hours have accused the New York billionaire of uninvited kiss or groping them. Trump has denied all the accusations, calling them "total fabrication" and threatening lawsuits against the New York Times and some other media for such reporting.
**Tips from Clinton: Where to get a good bargain Birkin-like bag
**
Ahead of her visit to Hong Kong in 2011, US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was given a long list of suggested shopping stops that included a cramped store in Admiralty selling “Birkin-like bags” deemed “perfectly legal”.
The email, titled “Hong Kong Shopping” and released by WikiLeaks, caught the attention of Clinton, who was then the United States’ secretary of state.
As she finished a meeting with a high-level Chinese official, she sent the shopping list on to a staff member, adding: “Pls print.”
The shopping list, sent a week before Clinton’s 2011 visit, was prepared by Nancy Bowen, a former managing director of the Clinton Global Initiative Asia. Bowen sent the recommendations to Huma Abedin, who is now vice-chairwoman of Clinton’s election campaign.
The list – divided into art, antiques, clothing and jewellery – was among a trove of embarrassing emails from Clinton’s campaign that WikiLeaks published and that US intelligence agencies said on Friday came largely from Russian intelligence agencies.
One of Bowen’s suggestions was LIII LIII, a cramped space in Admiralty Centre that sells bags similar to the iconic high-end brand Hermes. In Bowen’s description: “They make Birkin-like bags – no logos and perfectly legal – not cheap but certainly much cheaper than the original.”
A shop assistant told thePostthat a small Birkin lookalike would cost at least HK$3,000, a fraction of the US$10,000-plus starting price of a real one.
The email chain published by WikiLeaks did not indicate if Bowen knew she was actually advising the former first lady.
In the email to Abedin, she also noted more mainstream shopping options for expatriates, like Shanghai Tang – a “beautiful updated version of Chinese style”.
Bowen, who has been based in Hong Kong for more than a decade, also came up with the touristic Hollywood Road for antiques and galleries, including old maps of Hong Kong and Asia as well as antique pottery.
She also recommended the Chow Tai Fook chain and home visits to two jewellery makers.
ThePostcalled Bowen’s current office at Teneo Strategy, an advisory firm founded by a close adviser to Bill Clinton. No one answered the calls. It is unclear if Clinton bought anything from the shopping list.
(APD)
