It’s Bill Clinton’s 70th birthday today, and by way of celebration the London office of Heat Street has been leafing through the financial records of the William J. Clinton Foundation UK looking for a good news story with which to toast him.
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It has also released its list of donors in response to criticism. “Marc, Charlotte, Aidan & I can’t wait to celebrate!” she wrote on Twitter. “President Clinton and I believe it is important that we continue the work of alleviating poverty around the world”.
“There’s all this scrutiny because Hillary Clinton has been transparent”.
Although no documents have emerged, the attacks have left some Democrats and Clinton campaign officials anxious that the hackers might have obtained emails and voice messages that could be used to reinforce Republican charges that donors to the Clinton Foundation were rewarded with access to Clinton and her aides while she was secretary of state or to her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
The Democratic nominee has issues with her trustworthiness among voters, and stories about her email setup and the potential conflict of interest of the Clinton Foundation fit right in with that narrative.
It’s the kind of thing that is great for political fodder because it fits a narrative.
Or the Clintons could do what Warren Buffett did: donate a large sum to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, saying that he trusted them to use his funds for the benefit of all deserving people.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called the move “too little, too late”. “This is a corrupt institution, run for corrupt purposes”.
He added: “Every time you turn around there is something else”. It also filed amended returns for 2012 and 2013 for the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), formerly the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative.
Over the weekend, former Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, told The New York Daily News the foundation should be disbanded if she’s elected. “The CHAI Board will be meeting soon to determine its next steps”.
“I hope I’ll get permission to keep this foundation going”, he told Queen Latifah on her talk show previous year, amid a packed schedule of foundation-related events, including an overseas trip with donors.
Some critics suggest that some of those 2 billion dollars came from foreign governments, some supporting policies that are completely antipodean to those upheld by the United States, which puts Clinton at a risk of possible blackmail if she makes it to the White House. It also failed to report new foreign donations, another requirement. Next year’s headline: “Clinton Foundation Accepts $250 Million in Foreign Donations”.
The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership has been another flashpoint. The New York Times revealed that Giustra benefitted when Clinton’s State Department signed off on a deal that helped Giustra’s uranium mining interests.
Hillary along with her daughter Chelsea are the two other Directors of Clinton Foundation, which is involved in massive charity work.
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The Clinton Foundation confirmed to NPR these details, which were originally reported by the Associated Press.
