This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Washington • A pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC compiled a thick book of opposition research on Republican candidate Mitt Romney, including several sections noting his Mormon mission, his ties to the Marriott family and protests during his college days against the white only teams at Brigham Young University.
The research, which is commonly gathered in political races, dated from 2007 and 2008 and was released as part of the hacked emails of John Podesta, who is Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign manager, which are now on WikiLeaks.
The super PAC noted that Romney's much-anticipated speech about his Mormon faith "didn't change the mind of voters," citing a Salt Lake Tribune story about a Gallup poll showing only 17 percent of Americans still were less inclined to vote for a Mormon even after Romney's address.
The research book also notes that during his Mormon mission to France, Romney was the driver of a car involved a crash where the wife of his mission president was killed. Romney's return to the United States after his mission is covered in the research as well, noting an International Herald Tribune story about how he "hung back from the ferment of the day" in the civil rights movement era and stayed on the sidelines during protests of BYU's all-white athletic teams.
The research touches on the fact that Romney has many connections to the Marriott family and its hotel chain, including having served on the board of the company when it still sold in-room porn movies. That section was titled, "Marriott, Mitt Romney and Porn (Oh my!)."
Unrelated to Romney, the hacked emails also noted an interview the presidential candidate did with KSL Radio's Doug Wright in March 2016, essentially noting that Wright lobbed softball questions.
"Utah was sort of hysterical in what a layup it was, like Mandy wrote the questions," wrote Clinton's traveling press secretary Nick Merrill, likely referring to Mandy Grunwald, Clinton's senior communications adviser.
Added Merrill about Wright: "He asked when she was coming to Utah, and she responded with an extremely artful dodge that distracted with a list of about 12 things she's done in Utah."
For his part, Wright laughed off the criticism, noting the short interview didn't yield itself to any wide-ranging policy discussion.
" Hillary Clinton and I probably talked for 4 ½ - 5 minutes when she was on her way to the airport," Wright said. "Oh, yeah, it was really in-depth — we got into the heavy issues in that time."
The emails, which the Clinton camp refuses to verify, and complains were hacked by people with ties to the Russian government, have become a distraction and an annoyance to the Democratic presidential nominee, but so far doesn't seem to be cutting into her polling lead over Republican Donald Trump.
Editor's note: An earlier version of the story mistakenly said the opposition research was from Clinton's 2008 campaign.