The Clinton Foundation reportedly accepted millions of dollars from a Colombian oil company head before then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to support a trade deal with Colombia despite worries of human rights violations.
via Report: Clinton changed stance on trade deal after donations to foundation | TheHill.
A new poll shows a sharp drop in Hillary Clinton’s popularity over the past year, down to its lowest level since Barack Obama beat her for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, conducted by Langer Research Associates, shows Clinton’s popularity down to 49 percent, from it’s all-time high 67 percent two years ago. This marks an almost even split between respondents who viewed her favorably and the 46 percent who said they viewed her unfavorably.
via Poll Shows Support for Hillary Clinton in Decline | TIME.
The State Department is fighting a journalist’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding that the agency process for release a broad swath of email and other records produced by Hillary Clinton’s aides during her four years as secretary of state.
The request Vice News reporter Jason Leopold filed in November initially sought all records of Clinton’s office during her tenure, including all emails, as well as all records pertaining to meetings Clinton or any of her top aides attended during that time. After a Justice Department lawyer said that demand was too broad, Lepoold’s lawyer agreed to limit the request to records relating to any of 60 topics, including Gaza, Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, targeted assassinations, emails between Clinton and aide Philippe Reines and memos about the Freedom of Information Act itself.
However, the State Department is insisting that the request is still too burdensome.
via Feds fight Hillary Clinton-focused email lawsuit – POLITICO.com.
In one of those interrupt-a-thons that so endear punditry to the viewership, a Meet the Press segment on Hillary Clinton’s emails descended into chaos between MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and Clinton representative Neera Tanden.
The discussion followed news that Clinton had wiped her personal email server clean, according to House Select Committee on Benghazi chair Trey Gowdy (R-SC).
via Meet the Press Segment Descends into Chaos over Hillary Emails | Mediaite.
A CBS News investigation has found that at least one foreign company with close ties to its government has been giving generously to the foundation run by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.
Since its founding, the Clinton Foundation has invested millions each year for work in fighting AIDS and empowering women, but its recent uptick in donations from foreign governments has been raising questions about the potential influence on Hillary Clinton, as she gets ready to run for president.
The foundation has raised at least $42 million from foreign governments – and according to an analysis by CBS News – at least $170 million from foreign entities and individuals.
One donor – Rilin Enterprises- pledged $2 million in 2013 to the Clinton Foundation’s endowment. The company is a privately-held Chinese construction and trade conglomerate and run by billionaire Wang Wenliang, who is also a delegate to the Chinese parliament. Public records show the firm has spent $1.4 million since 2012, lobbying Congress and the State Department. The firm owns a strategic port along the border with North Korea and was also one of the contractors that built the Chinese embassy in Washington.
via Chinese company pledged $2 million to Clinton Foundation in 2013 – CBS News.
Hillary Clinton worked hard last week to put the “dead end” sign on the State Department email story by announcing there was nothing to find. But in her rush to control the narrative, Clinton may have (once again) missed the bigger picture: In politics as much as in business, authenticity matters.
Her press conference had the familiar ring of a controlled performance — the carefully parsed explanation, the combative posture — that stretched our belief that what she’s telling us is really the whole story. People wonder: Is she playing it straight with us? Why the nagging suspicion that Brand Hillary does not include bringing to the public table who she really is?
The Former Presdients Act provides pensions and office expenses for Clinton, both Bushes and Jimmy Carter
A 2014 Congressional Research Service report described the payments, pegging Clinton’s total at $15.9 million, an average of $1.14 million per year
He has an 8-year head start on George W. Bush, who nevertheless collects the most each year – an average of $1.18 million
Some of the Clinton payouts are subsidizing staff who work at his family foundation, now closely tied to his wife Hillary
Clinton spokesman insists the infamous private email server in the power-couple’s home was paid for out of Bill Clinton’s pocket
via Bill Clinton’s $16M in taxpayer benefits may be going to staff helping Hillary | Daily Mail Online.
The controversy is resurrecting memories of the host of two-decade-old controversies that dogged the first couple during their time at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: Whitewater, the White House travel office, the Lincoln Bedroom, Vince Foster, the Monica Lewinsky affair, and the pardon of Marc Rich to name a few.
The old political war machinery is gearing up on both sides, and Clinton’s political enemies are eager to exploit any reminder of that exhausting series of Clinton White House scandals great and small.
An expert on the law says Hillary broke the law:
A top freedom-of-information expert isn’t buying Hillary Clinton’s explanation of why she set up her own email system to conduct official State Department business, calling it “laughable.”
Daniel Metcalfe, who advised White House administrations on interpreting the Freedom of Information Act from 1981 to 2007, told The Canadian Press that the former secretary of state acted “contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the law.”
Do you see them? I don’t think so. But judge for yourself.
The former Secretary of State and possible 2016 presidential candidate once starred as “Hillary Gump” in a video shown at the 1995 Gridiron Club Dinner, an annual event held by a prestigious Washington journalist organization—and that footage has resurfaced. (Thanks, Independent Journal Review.)
Let’s cut through the spin and faux disclosure to consider five questions Hillary Rodham Clinton didn’t answer Tuesday.
QUESTION: What was her motive for stashing emails on a secret server registered to her home (a violation of federal regulations and Obama White House policy)?
It wasn’t “a matter of convenience.” That’s why she chose to use a personal account to send and receive work-related emails, an explanation that is both plausible and permissible.
The controversy is not about how she used the account to communicate. It is about how she seized control of the account and its emails, which belonged on a government server.
via 5 Questions Hillary Clinton Ducked – NationalJournal.com.
Clinton supporters’ defense that she is the only secretary of state to turn over records is one of those technically correct but fundamentally misleading statements.
While Democrats defended Hillary Clinton and the answers she offered to the controversies swirling around her nascent campaign, many found one word uttered by their expected presidential candidate troubling: “convenience.”
via Democrats See Clinton's 'Convenience' Haunting Her Campaign – NationalJournal.com.
Hillary Clinton’s plan to respond to damaging news that has taken the air out of her pre-campaign blitz was met with a single reaction from Democrats: It’s about time.
More than a week has passed since The New York Times reported that the former secretary of State conducted all of her official business on an unauthorized, homebrew email server. Even more time has elapsed since news that her family’s foundation was taking foreign donations.
via Democrats Say Clinton Needs to Calm Supporters, Donors – NationalJournal.com.
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