Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has added Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon to her political team to act as lead press secretary for her expected run for the White House in 2016.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Fallon told his DOJ colleagues that he’ll leave the agency at the end of the month to join Clinton, who is moving towards launching a presidential campaign as early as next month.
Fallon formerly served as a spokesman for Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). His hiring is the latest in a flurry of recent moves to focus on communications.
{mosads}Last week, the Clinton team hired Jesse Ferguson, the former communications director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, for a top role in the future campaign’s press shop. White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri will join the Clinton team in the same role beginning next week, the Post reports.
The Clinton team is also believed to be recruiting Josh Schwerin, a former DCCC national press secretary; Tyrone Gale, a former DCCC regional press secretary; Jesse Lehrich from the Democratic super-PAC American Bridge; and Ian Sams and Rebecca Chalif, who both work at the Democratic National Committee.
The focus on communications hires come after a rough few weeks for Clinton, who has faced questions over her use of a private email server while at State. Republicans are seeking answers over Clinton’s admission that she deleted thousands of personal emails, and are pressuring her to turn over her computer server to an independent investigator for review.
Clinton is also staffing up in early-voting South Carolina. Clay Middleton, a longtime adviser to Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), will run the campaign’s day-to-day operations, while former Secretary of Education Richard Riley has been advising her nascent campaign and will likely serve as state chairman, according to the Post.
Cameron Joseph contributed.