McAuliffe campaign scrambled to kill Fox News story, emails reveal

McAuliffe campaign scrambled to 'kill' Fox News story, emails reveal<br /><br />Team McAuliffe emails reveal an effort to 'kill this' Fox News story<br />Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe's campaign raised eyebrows by spending nearly $60,000 to hire a high-profile attorney known for masterminding election-related legal challenges. <br /><br />When Fox News sent the campaign a request for comment, the McAuliffe campaign scrambled to "kill" the story, according to emails mistakenly sent to Fox News.<br /><br /><br />Less than a month before Election Day, McAuliffe's campaign spent $53,680 on the services of the Elias Law Group, a firm that Marc Elias started earlier this year, Fox News previously reported. <br /><br />Video<br />Elias had formerly worked as a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie, which the Hillary Clinton campaign hired in 2016 in order to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump – research that included the infamous Christopher Steele dossier. Republicans have accused Elias of lying to hide the Clinton campaign's role in funding the dossier.<br /><br />House Republicans accused Elias of having a "serious conflict of interest" when he represented Iowa Democratic candidate Rita Hart in her effort to overturn the results of her extremely narrow loss to Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.<br /><br />Fox News reached out to the McAuliffe campaign for comment following a suggestion by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who wrote that McAuliffe hiring Elias is an "astonishing move." McAuliffe spokeswoman Christina Freundlich responded to the email with a message apparently meant for colleagues, not for Fox News.<br /><br />"Can we try to kill this," Freundlich wrote.<br /><br />For More Info:<br /><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/team-mcauliffe-emails-reveal-effort-to-kill-this-fox-news-story" rel="noopener">https://www.foxnews.com/politics/team-mcauliffe-emails-reveal-effort-to-kill-this-fox-news-story</a><br /><br /><a href="https://w