Matt Miller, who was communications director for the House Democratic Caucus in 2005, testified before the ethics committee that he gave the e-mails to the DCCC. Miller was also the source who gave the e-mails to reporters from The Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times, and later, to a reporter for Harper’s magazine. As a part of a “gut check,” Miller testified, he shared the e-mails with the “communications director at the DCCC.” While the DCCC staffer is not named in the report, Bill Burton was (and is now) the DCCC communications director and a top aide to Emanuel. (Burton did not respond to phone calls and e-mails from NEWSWEEK. DCCC spokesperson Sarah Feinberg confirmed that Miller provided Burton with copies of the e-mails.) Miller, who got the e-mails through a chain of social and political acquaintances, wanted the press to pick up the story at the time, in 2005. He thought Burton might be able to help. “I gave them to him not with any direct expectation but with the understanding that [Burton] is someone who talks to reporters all day,” Miller testified, according to the report. “If there’s something I’m missing, maybe - you know, that he could give them to a reporter.”
The ethics committee report does not suggest that it was the DCCC that leaked the story to reporters this fall, setting off a full-blown pre-election frenzy–as many Republicans suggested in the scandal’s aftermath. But it does raise questions about whether Emanuel was aware of the e-mails when he was suggesting otherwise. Emanuel could not be reached for comment Friday. DCCC spokesperson Feinberg told NEWSWEEK that Emanuel “never saw the e-mails, never did anything with them.” Then, in a later message, she added that Emanuel did have “a cursory, general knowledge that there were e-mails but had no concrete information.” The ethics committee announced Friday that no lawmakers would be admonished for their role in the Foley matter, but the panel determined that GOP members of Congress had been “willfully ignorant.” Some Democrats may have known more than they initially admitted, too.
