As US presidential election gathers steam, a young Indian-American-led research team is set to bring two separate dossiers on Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the two Democratic Party frontrunners, that would raise serious questions on their candidature.
The voluminous dossier against Clinton is based on publicly available resources and hundreds of petitions filed under the freedom of information act (FOIA) - similar to India's Right to Information Act - which have been compiled by the Republican Party research team headed by 31-year-old Raj Shah.
"What we are seeing, a candidate (Clinton) after decades of living in a bubble, whether secret service protection, living in high-end mansions and nice fundraiser with elite crowd seems to be out of touch and out of step with the struggles of middle-income voters," Shah told PTI in an interview.
A graduate of the prestigious Cornell University, Shah, was appointed as research director of Republican National Committee (RNC) by its chair Reince Priebus last February.
Shah exuded confidence that the Clinton dossier now almost ready would raise serious questions about her candidature.
Questions about her "character" and "honesty" would keep on lingering, he said, referring to the documents that is now in his possession and would be finally handed over to the Republican presidential nominee, whenever it is decided.
"Somebody who has lived the way she has for so many years, cannot possibly understand the struggles of middle class Americans," Shah said, adding, "her failures dramatically outweigh the accomplishments."
"Her record as Secretary of State, when you scratch the surface, there is a whole lot of vulnerability there, whether it is foreign policy, whether you look at actions of Russia, look at chaos in the Middle East, Libya and other places."
"Then, there is how she handled managing State Department in particular secret email server that has got her into hot water," Shah alleged.
Refusing to divulge details of the dossier, Shah indicated that Clinton's term in the State Department would be one of the main focus areas to attack the former First Lady.
Shah said a similar dossier is ready for Sanders, the Senator from Vermont, the other Democratic presidential candidate.
"Our primary mission in the campaign is to make the case that Clinton and Sanders can take the country further down the wrong direction," he said.
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In fact, Shah is known for specialising in anti-Clinton research.
As co-founder of America Rising PAC, which he co-founded, he wrote a book "Failed Choices: A Critique of the Hillary Clinton State Department," with co-authors Stephen Thompson and Tim Miller.
"Raj is the expert on the subject of all things Clinton, and his expertise will be an asset to our party," Priebus said at the time of his appointment last February.
Shah had served as deputy research director at the RNC during the 2012 election cycle.
He also served in various research roles at the White House during President George W Bush's second term.
As of now, he observed, it would be difficult to say who among Clinton and Sanders would be easier to defeat in the November presidential elections.
"With Sanders there is inexperience factor, his positions are more outside the mainstream," Shah said in response to a question, adding character questions would linger the most for Clinton.
"We are seeing a pattern in public life that stretches back decades now, shifting positions in ways that are politically convenient. Some of the stuff that she is being criticised for the campaign trail whether it is speaking fee, she has a long history with that as well.
"It dates back to 1990s, selling overnight stays in Lincoln bedroom and coffees at the White House," he alleged.
Shah has been doing "opposition research" for over a decade now.
"We build out a fact-driven case for or against the candidates that we are looking at. What we do in the research team is to put together in the fact sheet," he said.
He said the document against Clinton would be nearly 1000 pages-long and the research is all based on information that is publicly available.
"We filed hundreds of FOIA to all state and federal offices. That is a process that uncovers new information that may not have been in the public domain. It is a lot about connecting the dots," he said.
But he ruled out looking into personal and private lives of the opponents.
"We are not looking into personal lives," he said.
A second generation Indian-American, Shah's parents are from Mumbai having origins in Gujarat.
His father first came to the US for studies in 1970's then moved back to India. But after marriage his father and mother moved back to the US in late 70's.
They lived in Chicago and then moved to Connecticut, where Shah was born and raised.
