Program for ex-presidents paid salaries and benefits to Clinton aides at the center of controversies.
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A federal program created to support ex-presidents helped subsidize former President Bill Clinton’s foundation and supported his wife, Hillary Clinton’s private email server, Politico reported Thursday.
This investigation, which is based on records obtained from the General Services Administration through the Freedom of Information Act, does not reveal anything illegal.
Ratcliffe’s call for an investigation of the Clinton Foundation, supported by 50 members of Congress, cites reports that donors were given inappropriate access to, and influence over, Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state.
A total of 13 aides who got government funds to work in Clinton’s personal office in Harlem also got paid by the Clinton Foundation. They also noted that Bill Clinton held the record for requesting the most funds from the program at $16 million, he even beat out former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.
Clinton, who is now in a tight race for president with Republican Donald Trump, has come under fire stemming from her time as secretary of state (2009-2013).
The act, passed in 1958, allows the GSA to fund pensions, correspondence, support staff and travel of former presidents.
A federal judge is now ordering the State Department to turn over all emails from Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton.
It includes longtime Bill Clinton aide Justin Cooper, who despite not having a security clearance, any apparent training in cyber-security or a job at the State Department, in early 2009 helped set up the private email account that Hillary Clinton would use to send and receive classified information as Secretary of State.
While Republicans have questioned the honesty of Democrat Hillary Clinton in the wake of an email scandal and questions about donations to her charitable foundation, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Russ Feingold says he has no questions about the honesty of his party’s presidential nominee.
Liveris was the head of the US-China Business Council and was about to let Bill Clinton use his private plane for the secret trip to North Korea.
An aide to the former president told Politico that Clinton’s use of the GSA program is entirely consistent with the past use of the Former Presidents Act. “And the @ClintonFdn never housed a GSA-funded e-mail server, private or otherwise”, he said in a tweet.
In a lengthy, detailed report compiled over many months, Politico lays out an unusual and questionable situation Bill and Hillary find themselves in. It recommends that if Hillary Clinton wins, both Bill and Chelsea Clinton should end their operational involvement in the foundation and its affiliates for the duration of her presidency, relinquishing any control over spending, hiring and board appointments.
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An Associated Press review of Clinton’s calendars from a two-year stretch show that more than half of those she met with from outside of government had made contributions to the foundation.
