Hillary Clinton allies are going to war against a 'blockbuster expose' promising juicy scoops about her finances
Media Matters, a watchdog organization founded by staunch Clinton ally David Brock, published a long list on Monday containing what was described as reasons reporters should not trust Peter Schweizer or his new book, "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich."
"Schweizer is a partisan right-wing activist whose writings have been marked with falsehoods and retractions," Brock said in a statement. "Buyers should beware and consider the source."
Brock's group published a massive, 7,000-word-plus fact-check of Schweizer's past work, which they said was filled with "numerous reporters excoriating him for facts that 'do not check out,' sources that 'do not exist,' and a basic failure to practice 'Journalism 101.'"
Another pro-Clinton media watchdog group, Correct the Record, further claimed on Monday that Schweizer's book is "fiction" and "a political hatchet job masquerading as a book."
"The conservative author Peter Schweizer has a major credibility problem, though you wouldn't know it, because this anti-Clinton manifesto is being peddled by some in the media who have essentially reprinted the press release on its publication," said Adrienne Watson, communications director of the second group.
The New York Times's Amy Chozick reported Sunday that Schweizer's book, out May 5, will attempt to connect the Clintons' money - both their speaking fees and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation's fundraising - to favors doled out by the State Department around the world.
"His examples include a free-trade agreement in Colombia that benefited a major foundation donor's natural resource investments in the South American nation, development projects in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake in 2010, and more than $1 million in payments to Mr. Clinton by a Canadian bank and major shareholder in the Keystone XL oil pipeline around the time the project was being debated in the State Department," Chozick said.
Chozick also wrote that the book is "proving the most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy." And Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), a presidential candidate, has repeatedly touted the book's reporting as something that could potentially sink Clinton's campaign.
For its part, the Clinton campaign has dismissed the book's "absurd conspiracy theories." In a statement issued to The Times and other outlets, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon connected Schweizer's tome to dubious claims made about the Clintons in other books last summer, which were also attacked by groups like Media Matters.
"We always expected that while Hillary Clinton focused on helping everyday Americans get ahead, the Republicans would focus on attacks rather than ideas," Fallon told Politico. "It appears that this book is being used to aid this coordinated attack strategy, twisting previously known facts into absurd conspiracy theories. It will not be the first work of partisan-fueled fiction about the Clintons' record, and we know it will not be the last."
Schweizer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the criticism.