Mrs. Clinton’s E-Mail Address List in Wrong Hands

At the touch of a button last Friday, the Clinton campaign accidentally sent out the personal e-mail addresses of hundreds of reporters and members of the campaign’s inner circle. The addresses appeared at the top of a message intended to offer an update on a visit the first lady was planning to Manhattan.

The list was then forwarded to Internet gossip Matt Drudge, who posted a report about it on his Web site Sunday.

The entire e-mail list then migrated to other Internet sites, many of them conservative activist sites. The result: a stream of conspiracy theories and hate mail that has stuffed e-mail boxes across the country.

“Since Hillary Klinton was nice enough to publish all your e-mail addresses,” one of the milder messages begins, “us in the right-wing conspiracy wanted to drop each of you a note to say that you’re all slime.”

Officials at the Clinton campaign declined to comment directly on the release of the list but described it as a common e-mail error that Drudge chose to exploit. Drudge could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Clinton campaign officials also at first said the errant e-mail contained only addresses for members of the media but later acknowledged that it also included addresses for several high-level campaign staffers.