Cash for Benghazi...

Benghazi hearing floods Clinton campaign coffers with cash

By Annie Karni

Call it the Committee To Increase Hillary Clinton's Fundraising.

Donations have been flooding into campaign coffers over the past 13 hours since her testimony in front of the House Benghazi committee wrapped late Thursday night, thrilling Clinton fundraisers on the eve of a weekend-long finance committee meeting that couldn’t have come at a better time. According to communications director Jennifer Palmieri, the hour between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. last night was their best fundraising hour of the campaign to date.

Rallying in Virginia Friday, Clinton said her campaign had broken the 500,000 donor mark, meaning she has gotten over 100,000 new contributors in October alone. The campaign then added that over half of the donations it received on Thursday were from new contributors, and that 99% of them were less than $250.

The long-planned finance committee event kicks off Saturday evening in Manhattan at 6 p.m. -- when Clinton herself will be in Iowa speaking at the annual Democratic Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. But the Democratic frontrunner will attend the Sunday panel of her finance leadership summit, where attendees will have “in-depth campaign briefings, dialogues with senior advisors and a conversation with Hillary,” according to a schedule obtained by POLITICO.

In the cheapskate fashion the Clinton campaign loves to brag about, the schedule indicates there will be a break for lunch Sunday, but no sustenance provided. “Lunch on your own,” the schedule says. The day-long event also warns attendees, “dinner on your own.”

That evening, there is a fundraiser for Clinton’s 68th birthday, featuring special performances by John Legend, Demi Lovato and comedian Amy Schumer at the New York Hilton Midtown Grand Ballroom. Fundraisers selling tickets to the event said they were worried a few weeks ago that the $250 tickets would not sell out. But the lower-dollar tickets to the event were already sold out Friday, according to a copy of the invitation posted online.

The campaign on Sunday will also be hosting sessions "to help share best practices and ideas to support your fundraising efforts."