Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been found to have email exchanges with Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg about potential hires for his campaign. The emails between Zuckerberg and Buttigieg have come to light as Zuckerberg faces questions from officials over such issues as misinformation, privacy, election meddling, and bias. 

The news, broken by Bloomberg on Monday, comes as Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee on Facebook’s impact on the financial services and housing sectors.

According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg recommended to Buttigieg’s campaign manager, Mike Schmuhl, for the campaign to bring on Eric Mayefsky — a senior digital analytics adviser — and Nina Wornhoff — an organizing data manager. Both of the individuals recommended by Zuckerberg were hired by the campaign, according to campaign spokesman Chris Meagher.

“Since the beginning of the campaign, we’ve built a top-tier operation with more than 430 staff in South Bend and around the country,” Meagher said in a statement, reported by Bloomberg. “The staffers come from all types of background and everyone is working hard every day to elect [Buttigieg] to the White House.”

A spokesperson for Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, confirmed when Zuckerberg visited South Bend, Indiana, in April 2017 — as part of his live-streamed philanthropic work — they received a tour from Buttigieg and were asked by the employees if they could connect them with the candidate.

“Having seen [Zuckerberg's] visit to South Bend in 2017 and Facebook Live with Mayor Buttigieg, colleagues later asked [Zuckerberg] and [Chan] to connect them with the Buttigieg campaign as they were interested in joining,” spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement. 

Bloomberg reports LaBolt did not confirm whether or not Zuckerberg had made similar recommendations to any other candidate in the race, but he did say the actions should not be seen as an endorsement of him to Buttigieg.

“I think this should probably not be misconstrued as if I’m like deeply involved in trying to support their campaign or something like that,” Buttigieg said in a press call Monday.

In addition to the Bloomberg report, Buttigieg also came under fire for his attempt to work with a Chicago lawyer with connections to the alleged cover-up surrounding the murder of LaQuan McDonald.