The Clinton Foundation is working now to “spin off” or “find partners” for many of its programs, including all global activities and programs funded by foreign and corporate donors, the head of the Clinton Foundation told NPR’s Peter Overby. “If it’s not appropriate for you to do while you’re president why was it appropriate to do while she was secretary of state?” asked Peter Schweizer, author of the book Clinton Cash, who first alleged the quid pro quo between the Indian contribution and the nuclear deal.
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Concerns were recently revived after emails surfaced showing that Band had contacted two senior State Department aides of Hillary Clinton, seeking their assistance in helping a donor – Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury – to secure a meeting with a USA diplomat in Lebanon. He said the official name would be changed from the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation to the Clinton Foundation.
“The process of determining the Clinton Foundation’s future if Hillary becomes president has not been easy”, Clinton wrote. In more than a dozen email exchanges, Abedin provided expedited, direct access to Clinton for donors who had contributed from $25,000 to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation.
A firewall was supposed to have been in place to ensure that the foundation’s work remained completely separate from Hillary Clinton’s role as head of USA diplomacy, but critics said that that barrier has been permeable at best.
Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering low-interest “microcredit” for poor business owners, met with Clinton three times and talked with her by phone during a period when Bangladeshi government authorities investigated his oversight of a nonprofit bank and ultimately pressured him to resign from the bank’s board.
“The most important thing to the president and to Chelsea is that the work continues but under different umbrellas away from the foundation, obviously, because we will not be able to accept corporate donations or global money as we have to support our programs”, Shalala continued. “While I will continue to support the work of the Foundation, I will step down from the Board and will no longer raise funds for it”, he said.
In response to a New York Times article that claims the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars from foreign countries who’ve been criticized for sexual discrimination and other human-rights issues, Clinton campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon said not only have the Clintons complied with the law, but they’ve gone “beyond legal requirements”, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Donald Trump called Monday for the shutdown of the Clinton Foundation, saying the nonprofit organization is “the most corrupt enterprise in political history”.
The former president outlined the Clinton Foundation’s accomplishments and planned shift in scope in an email to about 500,000 supporters. The Clinton’ most recent tax returns showed the couple donating $1 million to the foundation in 2015.
“While it would be presumptive to assume a victory in November, now that Hillary is her party?s nominee, it would be irresponsible not to plan for it”, he said.
Here’s how it works: You write big checks to the Clinton Foundation and you get special treatment.
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Bill Clinton said that much of the foundation’s worldwide activities would be transitioned to other organizations to continue that type of work.
