The Clinton Foundation is in the process preemptively coming clean on problems before it gets caught.
Will even mainstream media reporters smelling scandals in the murky world of payments to the Clintons and influence peddling, Hillary’s handlers are not waiting for the skeletons to be found. At least not the one buried near the surface.
The latest Clinton Foundation scandal, as reported by The Washington Post, is that the Clinton Foundation reveals up to $26 million in additional payments:
The Clinton Foundation reported Thursday that it has received as much as $26.4 million in previously undisclosed payments from major corporations, universities, foreign sources and other groups.The disclosure came as the foundation faced questions over whether it fully complied with a 2008 ethics agreement to reveal its donors and whether any of its funding sources present conflicts of interest for Hillary Rodham Clinton as she begins her presidential campaign.The money was paid as fees for speeches by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. Foundation officials said the funds were tallied internally as “revenue” rather than donations, which is why they had not been included in the public listings of its contributors published as part of the 2008 agreement.
CNN further reports, Clinton Foundation didn’t disclose as much as $26M in speaking fees
Former President Clinton was the biggest earner for speeches, giving three that brought in anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million.Both he and his wife gave a smattering of speeches to foreign companies and other organizations for anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000. Bill Clinton spoke to Thailand’s Ministry of Energy, China Real Estate Development Group, Ltd, and Qatar First Investment Bank; Hillary Clinton spoke to Goldman Sachs, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase, among others.
Why does it matter?
Because as Fuzzy pointed, Clinton Speaking Fees Just Another Form of Payola.
We also recently learned that apart from the Foundation, the Clintons made $25 million in speaking fees since January 2014:
Hillary Rodham Clinton and former president Bill Clinton earned in excess of $25 million for delivering 104 speeches since the beginning of 2014, a huge infusion to their net worth as she was readying for a presidential bid.The Clintons revealed their recent income as paid speakers and other aspects of their personal finances in disclosure forms filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday [May 15].Until Friday’s financial disclosure filing, there had not been a complete picture of which groups she addressed on the speaking circuit or how much she made.According to the disclosure, Hillary Clinton delivered 51 speeches in 2014 and the first three months of 2015, earning more than $11 million. Her fees varied, but she earned as much as $315,000 for speaking to eBay in San Jose on March 11; she also collected $325,000 for speaking to the technology company Cisco in Las Vegas in August.
There’s nothing wrong with people cashing in. But when that person is the likely Democratic nominee, it raises questions.
That Hillary would be the nominee has been presumed for several years, so these payoffs take on a different meaning than the fat fees paid to speakers routinely. By classifying the payments as “revenue” instead of “donations,” the Clinton Foundation shielded the identity of the donors.
In the Washington Post article linked above, the use of donations for political influence is a prime concern:
The foundation, along with the Clintons’ paid speaking careers, have provided additional avenues for foreign governments and other interests to gain entrée to one of America’s most prominent political families.
Guess who isn’t answering questions about foreign donations?
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