Subject: Taxes/health records rollout
From: Brian Fallon <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Huma Abedin <[email-masked]>, Cheryl Mills <[email-masked]>, Heather Samuelson <[email-masked]>, Robby Mook <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>, Nick Merrill <[email-masked]>, Tony Carrk <[email-masked]>, Dan Schwerin <[email-masked]>, Christina Reynolds <[email-masked]>, Kristina Schake <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2015 01:07:27 -0400

*ROLLOUT PLAN FOR TAX/HEALTH RECORDS FOR FRIDAY, JULY 31*

*Round 1*

*At 1 PM: *Pitch the first round of stories to the travelling press corps
(AP, Politico, WSJ, WaPo, etc) with a 2 pm embargo.  For these stories, we
will:

·         Provide the full text of HRC’s physician’s letter, summarizing
that she is in excellent health and is medically fit to perform the duties
of President. We will push that she is the FIRST presidential candidate to
release this info.

·         Also indicate that the tax returns will be posted later in the
day.

o   In describing that the tax returns are forthcoming, we will stress that
the  amount of our disclosure will better Jeb’s in three key ways:

1.      TOTAL YEARS OF RETURNS: Jeb made a big deal of releasing 33 years
of returns, a record for a presidential candidate.  Today we are posting
the Clintons’ returns from 2007-2014 on our website.  The returns for
’92-2006 were already available online, and 1977-1991 were reported on
extensively when they were made available.  Today’s release means that
Hillary Clinton has made 38 years of returns available to the press over
the course of her career.

2.      SPEECH INCOME: In addition to her returns, Hillary Clinton is
releasing itemized income amounts for each speech delivered by her and
President in 2013. (She has already done it for 2014 and the early part of
2015). Jeb did not do this.

3.      INCOME SOURCES THAT PASSED THROUGH LLC: HRC will also itemize the
income that went through her and the President’s LLC entities. Jeb has
refused to disclose the clients from whom he derived income that passed
through his LLC known as Jeb Bush and Associates.

We expect the stories that pop at 2 pm to have headlines such as “CLINTON
IN ‘EXCELLENT HEALTH,’ MEDICAL RECORDS SAY” … “CLINTON RELEASES HEALTH
REPORT” ... "CLINTON CAMP AIMS TO ONE-UP BUSH IN DISCLOSING FINANCES". The
lede of most of these stories will be the health records since they are
being released in full, but the lower paragraphs of the stories will focus
on how the campaign says it will improve upon Jeb Bush’s level of
disclosure when the tax returns emerge.

*Round 2*

*At 3 PM: *We will provide the travelers list with the toplines of
Clinton’s 2014 tax returns, emphasizing their effective tax rates (both
federal and state-federal, combined). We will also provide advance text of
the statement from HRC about how the wealthy – a category in which she
includes herself – ought to pay their fair share, not seek to shrink or
shirk their obligations.  We will provide these materials on embargo until
4 pm.

We expect the headlines from this round to include: “CLINTONS PAID xx% RATE
IN 2014” … “CLINTON, RELEASING RETURNS, SAYS WEALTHY SHOULD PAY MORE.”

*Round 3*

*At 4 pm*: Concurrent with the Round 2 stories popping, a webpage will go
live onhillaryclinton.com. There, the following materials will be listed:

o   Intro paragraph explaining what we are posting

o   HRC statement

o   Links to:

§  2007-2014 returns

§  Itemized speech income from 2013

§  Physician’s letter

We will send out a brief release providing reporters with the link to this
page. From this point on, reporters will dig into specific details in
search of negative storylines, and re-write the Round 1 and Round 2 stories
to reflect the additional detail. Among the storylines we expect reporters
to zero in on once they dive into the full returns:

·         The actual income amounts (to the dollar) reported by the
Clintons for 2014, and cumulatively for the eight years reported.
(Previously, their incomes only needed to be stated as a range under the
Personal Financial Disclosure Form). Using this figure, reporters will
dwell on the Clintons’ sheer wealth.

·         The fact of HRC’s LLC entity. Again, we will try to put the focus
on how we are going beyond what Jeb did in disclosing all the income
sources for this LLC, but the fact of it will be new to reporters.

·         The actual income amount earned by WJC from his consulting
contracts, especially Laureate.

·         Reporters will also scrutinize the 2013 speech list for overlap
between speech hosts and campaign/Foundation donors that could fuel
“pay-to-play” storylines.

Despite these inevitable angles, based on the framing performed in the
earlier rounds of stories, we will have given ourselves the best possible,
“fighting” chance of promoting the most helpful storylines (i.e., the
superlative of being the first candidate to release her health records, the
Clintons’ high effective tax rate, their call for a more progressive tax
code that asks wealthy individuals like themselves to pay more, the
heightened transparency of HRC’s tax returns as compared to Jeb’s, etc).