Politico Features the Ethics Issue at State - READ ALL OF THIS

The most damning part of this essay is in the second half - it's OLD NEWS now. ABC News apparently got a Clinton appointee removed from a State Department committee on nukes for which his qualifications were that he is a donor to Clinton campaigns and Foundation.

POLITICO

Ethicists: Clinton team violated ‘spirit’ of pledge

Subtitle: Emails suggest aides were catering to Clinton foundation donors.

As a reminder, here's the statement she submitted to the Ethics office at State in January 2009:

“For the duration of my appointment as Secretary if I am confirmed, I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which The William J. Clinton Foundation (or the Clinton Global Initiative) is a party or represents a party, unless I am first authorized to participate."

Additionally, Politico provides that also in January 2009, a letter was submitted by Clinton's attorney, laying out “voluntary steps ... President Clinton intends to take to assist Senator Clinton to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest with her duties as Secretary of State.”

And on top of that, there was a memorandum of understanding submitted in December 2015 specifically about ethics guidelines for the Clinton Foundation. That letter was signed by Clinton Foundation CEO Bruce Lindsey and Valerie Jarrett on behalf of the Obama Administration.

Politico summarizes where we are given the new email released yesterday:

An April 2009 exchange between Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band and two of Clinton’s top State Department aides concerning a major foundation donor is the latest in a succession of emails suggesting Clinton staffers violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the ethics agreement Clinton had signed just months earlier.

In the April 2009 exchange, Band seeks urgent access for Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire who donated between $1 million and $5 million to the foundation and pledged an additional $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative.

“As you know, he’s key guy there and to us,” Band writes to Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin. The chain ends with Band urging Abedin, “better if you call him. Now preferable. This is very important.”

They highlight two points which potentially lessen issues for the Secretary, A) that this accommodation of Chagoury is not being done directly BY Clinton (rather by aides to her), and that B) it's possible that Chagoury was contacting the Sate Department to alert it to danger rather than requesting personal favors. Regardless, with respect to the second point, Politico asserts:

Either way, the foundation was seeking special access for a donor — itself a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the pledge Clinton and top foundation officials had signed, according to several ethicists.

A representative for Chagoury apparently made a statement to the New York Times yesterday about this email:

Statement from Mark Corallo spokesman for Gilbert Chagoury:
“Ambassador Chagoury doesn’t understand all of the media concern over the Clinton Global Initiative which has done so much good philanthropic work around the world – especially in Africa. He is proud to be associated with what he truly believes is a wonderful charitable organization.

“The last time the ambassador had any contact with Secretary Clinton was at a dinner in 2006. He has had no personal contact with Secretary Clinton or any of her staff since 2006. He has never met or had any contact with Ambassador Feltman. He had no contact of any kind with anyone from the State Department regarding the subject matter of the emails between Mr. Band and Ms. Abedin. He was simply passing along his observations and insights about the dire political situation in Lebanon at the time. But nothing ever came of it. He had no contact of any kind with the State Department.

“It should be noted that while Ambassador Chagoury is a Nigerian of Lebanese ancestry and still has a large extended family and many close friends in Lebanon, he has no business interests in Lebanon. Beyond his family and his many generous charitable works, his greatest concern is for the protection and preservation of the Christians of Lebanon and the Middle East.”

Politico, itself, is only willing to go this far with their assertions:

Ethicists tended to agree that while there may be no evidence of a deliberate violation of Clinton’s pledge, the emails underscored the blurry lines between the globe-spanning charity and Clinton’s work as the nation’s top diplomat.

But get this - this is new, Public Citizen has seemingly not weighed in on this topic until now:

“The Clinton Foundation was taking money from anybody who would give it, and the biggest contributions were from people who had business before the State Department,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen. “They didn’t follow the pledge. … I don’t think anyone in the foundation sought to deliberately violate the pledge, I just don’t think they cared about it,” he added.

Frankly, I don't see the distinction - seems to me that ignoring the pledge is the same as violating it. In both cases, the pledge ends up abridged.

I'd missed this reference to a disclosure from June 10, 2016:

This isn’t the first time this summer the Clinton campaign has had to address lingering controversies related to the Clinton Foundation. In June, emails revealed that Mills had pushed to name a Clinton bundler and foundation donor, Chicago securities trader Rajiv Fernando, to a seat on the sensitive International Security Advisory Board — a position he was forced to give up two days later after ABC News asked for his résumé.

Please note that in this ABC video, they identify Fernando as a Super Delegate in addition to being a donor:

How Clinton Donor Got on Sensitive Intelligence Board

Worth watching the video where ABC News actually commits an act of journalism - the text at the link goes into detail of what they were able to fish out. Also notable is that when ABC attempted to interview Fernando at the 2012 Democratic Convention, they were threatened with arrest if they persisted in attempting to interview Fernando:

Newly released State Department emails help reveal how a major Clinton Foundation donor was placed on a sensitive government intelligence advisory board even though he had no obvious experience in the field, a decision that appeared to baffle the department’s professional staff.

The emails further reveal how, after inquiries from ABC News, the Clinton staff sought to “protect the name” of the Secretary, “stall” the ABC News reporter and ultimately accept the resignation of the donor just two days later.

Copies of dozens of internal emails were provided to ABC News by the conservative political group Citizens United, which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act after more the two years of litigation with the government.

A prolific fundraiser for Democratic candidates and contributor to the Clinton Foundation, who later traveled with Bill Clinton on a trip to Africa, Rajiv K. Fernando’s only known qualification for a seat on the International Security Advisory Board (ISAB) was his technological know-how. The Chicago securities trader, who specialized in electronic investing, sat alongside an august collection of nuclear scientists, former cabinet secretaries and members of Congress to advise Hillary Clinton on the use of tactical nuclear weapons and on other crucial arms control issues.

I'd missed this in the first few reads of the POLITICO piece - this is apparently the only thing Hillary's campaign has had to say about any of this. Band, apparently, like Abedin, holds multiple positions in the various Clinton organizations:

And the campaign’s response to the latest email batch — emphasizing that Band was working in his role as an aide to Bill Clinton, not an employee of the foundation — similarly hinges on obscure legal reasoning.

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WaterLily's picture

I don't even know what to say anymore.

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flowerfarmer's picture

That is all.

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stevej's picture

regarding her time at State.

https://www.rt.com/usa/355483-reporters-state-department-clinton-emails/

Interesting video here showing journo's actually practising journalism and putting SoC spokesperson on the backfoot re emails:

“I’m not going to speak anymore,” replied a State Department spokeswoman, reaching a point of exasperation repelling reporters’ hounding over a new batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails that exposed cozy relationships between the former secretary’s team and wealthy donors of her husband’s foundation.
The State Department’s Elizabeth Trudeau had a hard time dodging a swarm of uncomfortable questions, forcing her to comment on the ethical side of close ties of Department and the Clinton Foundation back when it was headed by the current Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Edit: I'm not a huge fan of RT but the video is a straight recording of a press briefing

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“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire

Since 2006 connected to his legal troubles? Seems to me I remember reading something recently about him getting in trouble over some sort of financial business. (Yeah, my memory is lousy). Something evocative of the Nigerian prince email scam. (I kid you not)

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He was convicted in 2000, and yet still okay to the Clintons. They are very responsive to reformed criminals who are big donors.

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MsGrin's picture

They don't seem to look gift money in the mouth.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

elenacarlena's picture

herself, she's going to throw her underlings under the bus and say it had nothing to do with her and she is shocked! Shocked I tell you! That anyone working for her would kowtow to Foundation donors.

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Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.

detroitmechworks's picture

and in the absolute worst case scenario, will fall back on the Reagan Defense.

"I don't recall ever..."

Technically CANNOT be proven to be a lie.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

“I’m not going to speak anymore,” replied a State Department spokeswoman, reaching a point of exasperation repelling reporters’ hounding over a new batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails that exposed cozy relationships between the former secretary’s team and wealthy donors of her husband’s foundation.

Why is "I'm not going to speak anymore" even an option? Government IS supposed to be accountable to the people who pay for it. As best I understand these matters, that would be mostly US taxpayers and China.

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kharma's picture

if caught, deny knowledge or memory. We need to clean house all over the place.

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

Anja Geitz's picture

Every one of her aides under the bus, along with every one of her supporters pointing to the absence of a smoking gun, I feel it will eventually be much like the Reagan Iran contra scheme in terms of public opinion. Perhaps not satisfying enough now but how much more can we toss on the pile before the public at large really does turn on her?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Lily O Lady's picture

I think an infinite amount can add to the pile before the public turns on her.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

How exactly did this guy become a super delegate? The standard defense of super delegates by Hillary supporters is that how dare anybody question stalwart elected officials be attacked for being super delegates. Yet, this guy was appointed a super delegate by somebody and apparently he swore to support Clinton before any primary.

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MsGrin's picture

...and I feel pretty super dooper about that.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Mark from Queens's picture

Clinton Foundation company motto.

It's just totally upside down that one of the most corrupt, arrogant, hubristic and untrustworthy candidates of all-time is not being subject to this kind of scrutiny across the board by the media.

Love the spokesperson for the Nigerian billionaire (who was going to donate a billion dollars to their massive money laundering scheme), saying he just doesn't have that much interest in Lebanon as his excuse. As if that should be able to convince people there's no impropriety there. Anybody who has that kind of money has cheated others, scammed his way or crushed so many others to get there, and has an uncannily developed nose for business interests everywhere, and is obsessed with sniffing around for more. That's the only way anyone could ever be in possession of ludicrous amounts of money. What gets me is the cover minion pawns think these are so brazen and frankly don't give a shit that they could lay this BS on people and expect them to swallow it. The audacity of these pricks is Orwellian.

It's never been more cleat that it's a two-tiered justice system. To me this year has been one of the more convincing epochs. If you're a murderous cop caught on film slaughtering a defenseless and non-threatening civilian, or a financial or political elite embezzling oceans of money or an defying rules because they don't apply to you, there's no consequences. Yet Rikers Island only a few miles from where I type is overcrowded during a brutally hot heatwave and locked down under the most inhumane and abusive conditions, teeming with thousands and thousands of people for the smallest, non-violent crimes. It's completely twisted.

When people really settle down to let that sink in then the revolution will start. We've all sort of know it on some level and have joked about how the rich can buy themselves out of anything (after all, doesn't everybody have a price?). But when we realize that we're the ones continually paying the taxes, getting hit with fines and late fees and interest piling up, having our costs of living go up and there's no relief with possible and likely punitive measures to suffer for not complying but these folks keep brazenly skating free - well, how much more will it take before people rise up?

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

MsGrin's picture

Others are covering for Clinton - IG at State won't re-look at the Pay to Play issue, they say Clinton's oath does not preclude her staff from interacting with the Foundation and they feel that no rules were broken. It appears that since Mills tasked others to look into the response to CREW, she did nothing wrong by not providing what information she had:

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member