RUTHFULLY YOURS

WASHINGTON — CNN political commentator Donna Brazile appeared to give the Clinton campaign advance notice of a question that came up at the cable network’s presidential town hall, according to e-mails released Tuesday.

“From time to time I get the questions in advance,” Brazile, who was then vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee, wrote in a March 12, 2016, e-mail to Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

“Here’s one that worries me about HRC,” she added, as she sent along a detailed death-penalty-related question.

“19 states and the District of Columbia have banned the death penalty. 31 states, including Ohio, still have the death penalty. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, since 1973, 156 people have been on death row and later set free. Since 1976, 1,414 people have been executed in the U.S. That’s 11% of Americans who were sentenced to die, but later exonerated and freed. Should Ohio and the 30 other states join the current list and abolish the death penalty?”

In the CNN presidential town hall — which took place the next day, March 13 — Clinton was asked a question on the death penalty.

That question, however, was differently worded.

The e-mail to the Clinton campaign from Brazile, who is currently on leave from CNN as she serves as the interim chair of the DNC, was made public by WikiLeaks, which has been slowly releasing a trove of hacked e-mails from campaign chair John Podesta.

In a statement released by the DNC, Brazile claimed she helped all Democratic campaigns, but denied forwarding particular questions to candidates.

“As a longtime political activist with deep ties to our party, I supported all of our candidates for president. I often shared my thoughts with each and every campaign, and any suggestions that indicate otherwise are simply untrue,” Brazile said.

“As it pertains to the CNN Debates, I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did,” she added.

The Obama administration, which claims the Russians are behind the e-mail hacks, said Tuesday there would be retaliation.

“We obviously will ensure that our response is proportional,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

“The president has talked before about the significant capabilities that the US government has to both defend our systems in the United States but also carry out offensive operations in other countries.”