The latest release of hacked Democratic National Committee emails from Guccifer 2.0 revealed that rich donors and contributors to the DNC received appointments to ambassadorships and other government jobs.
A donor list from November 2008 contained the names and addresses of some 100,000 DNC donors. Donors at the top of the list in terms of money donated were often appointed to ambassadorships throughout the world. It is not clear whether these donors specifically requested the countries they would later become ambassadors to, but evidently the prospect of becoming an ambassador of any country was enough to get them take out their checkbooks and contribute huge sums to the DNC.
Some of the those who bought their way into the Diplomatic Fantasy Camp includes:
Matthew Barzun: raised $3.5 million and became ambassador to Sweden from 2009-2011. He is currently US ambassador to the UK.
Kirk Wagar: raised $2.3 million and became ambassador to Singapore in 2003.
Alan Solomont: raised $2.3 million and became ambassador to Spain and Andorra from 2009-2013.
John Roos: raised $2 million and became ambassador to Japan from 2009-2013.
Jane Hartly: raised $605,000 and became ambassador to France and Monaco in 2014.
Other donors were awarded with appointments to ambassadorships to the Bahamas, Switzerland, South Africa, Belgium, New Zealand and the Czech Republic.
The DNC’s interim chair, Donna Brazile sought to divert attention to the alarming revelations by blaming Russian agents.
“The DNC is the victim of a crime — an illegal cyber-attack by Russian state-sponsored agents who seek to harm the Democratic Party and progressive groups in an effort to influence the presidential election.”
It is doubtful Brazile’s attempt to shift blame away from the “pay for play” program to the accusation that Russian hackers were behind it will do much to lessen the controversy.
