What About the Clinton Corruption Investigation?
Originally published at the Washington Times
Since FBI Director James Comey delivered a blistering indictment of Hillary Clinton’s email practices on Tuesday, and then outrageously declared that no “reasonable” prosecutor would bring charges, it seems that many in the press view the matter as closed. But there was one big thing Comey didn’t mention in his statement, and which the media seems to have forgotten also: Clinton’s email practices are potentially only the tip of the iceberg of her illegal activities.
Forgotten in the coverage are more than a year’s worth of stories about the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the family’s speech fees.
Earlier this year, Fox News reported that the FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton had expanded into a public corruption investigation--specifically, “whether the possible ‘intersection’ of Clinton Foundation work and State Department business may have violated public corruption laws.”
In his remarks, Director Comey described in depth the FBI investigation into Clinton’s emails, but he was silent on the public corruption track. Appearing before Congress on Thursday, he declined to say whether the Clinton Foundation is or was being investigated.
Director Comey said in his statement on Clinton’s emails that he felt obliged to lay out the facts because “the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest.
Don’t the same unusual circumstances that justified Comey’s “transparency” on the email matter equally justify an explanation of what, if anything, the FBI has learned about the possible corruption of a Secretary of State?
What has the FBI found, for instance, about the following high profile cases?
- The New York Times reported last year that the head of a Canadian uranium company funneled more than $2 million to the Clinton Foundation, at a time when he was seeking approval to sell control of the company to the Russian atomic energy agency. Hillary Clinton’s State Department was one of the agencies required to sign off on the sale, and she did not disclose the contributions, “despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors.”
- The Washington Post reported that foreign governments donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary was Secretary of State, including at least one donation “that violated its ethics agreement with the Obama administration.”
- The Associated Press reported that at the State Department, Hillary Clinton had “75 meetings with longtime political donors, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were not recorded [on her official calendar] or omitted the names of those she met.”
- Bill Clinton was paid $550,000 for a single speech by a Chinese business group, and $200,000 for a single speech by a group linked to the Chinese government. Both speeches occurred when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, and as U.S. foreign policy was “pivoting” to focus on Asia.
- The Kuwaiti national bank paid Bill Clinton at least $350,000 for a single speech at a time when his wife’s vetting for the Secretary of State job was public knowledge.
There are many other examples of the Clintons being paid extraordinary sums of money from foreign sources surrounding Hillary’s service as Secretary of State.
If the FBI has decided not to pursue an investigation of these unprecedented payments, the American people deserve to know why. And if it has, the American people deserve to know that, as well.
Let’s hope Director Comey tells the American people sooner rather than later.
Your Friend,
Newt