The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Foundation donors got Clinton face time
Meetings occurred while she was secretary of state.
WASHINGTON — More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.
Donors who were granted time with Clinton included an internationally known economist who asked for her help as the Bangladesh government pressured him to resign from a nonprofit bank he ran; a Wall Street executive who sought Clinton’s help with a visa problem; and Estee Lauder executives who were listed as meeting with Clinton while her department worked with the firm’s corporate charity to counter gender-based violence in South Africa.
They are among at least 85 of 154 people with private interests who either met, or had phone conversations scheduled, with Clinton and also gave to her family’s charities, according to a review of State Department calendars. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. The 154 does not include U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives.
The meetings between the Democratic presidential nominee and foundation donors did not appear to violate legal agreements Clinton and former president Bill Clinton signed before she joined the State Department in 2009. But the frequency of the overlaps shows the intermingling of access and donations, and fuels perceptions that giving the foundation money was a price of admission for access to Clinton. Her calendars and emails released as recently as this week describe scores of contacts she and her top aides had with foundation donors.
Clinton’s campaign said the Associated Press’ interpretation of the records was flawed because it did not include in its calculations meetings with foreign diplomats or U.S. government officials, and the meetings it examined covered only the first half of Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
“It is outrageous to misrepresent Secretary Clinton’s basis for meeting with these individuals,” spokesman Brian Fallon said. He called it “a distorted portrayal of how often she crossed paths with individuals connected to charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation.”
Donald Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, said Tuesday the overlaps were “further evidence of the payto-play politics at her State Department” and called for a special prosecutor to investigate.
Last week, the Clinton Foundation moved to head off ethics concerns about future donations by announcing changes planned if she is elected. They would not affect the more than 6,000 donors who have already provided the Clinton charity with more than $2 billion in funding since its creation in 2000.