Bill Clinton’s “classic conflict of interest”

posted at 5:45 pm on February 19, 2008 by Bryan
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Take a few minutes and read through this article. It’s complex, with Bill Clinton taking this benefactor’s jet over to that country to work on this other deal that ends up benefiting everyone including Clinton’s charities and presumably the Clinton library. The actions on display mirror the kind of dealmaking that the Clintons engaged in in the Whitewater scandal, only on an international scale and with the Clinton library and Clinton campaign at least tangentially involved. Here’s a takeaway quote.

Giustra, 50, has since put his plane at Clinton’s disposal at least a dozen times to raise money for charity, his wife’s presidential campaign or himself, according to U.S. flight records and spokesmen for Clinton and Giustra. The Canadian businessman has become one of the largest donors to the Clinton Foundation, pledging half his future minerals earnings in a way that ties the foundation’s success to his own.

“If former President Clinton is making decisions about where to put the charitable efforts of the Clinton Foundation based even partly on where he’s likely to benefit personally, or see his friends benefit, then that clearly is a classic conflict of interest,” says Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in Washington.

The other takeaway is a question: Did any of Bill Clinton’s various international deals end up funding the $5 million loan that the Clintons handed to her cash-strapped campaign? I don’t know the answer to that question and I’m sure if asked they’ll say no, but after all these years with these two, is there any reason at all to take the Perjurer in Chief and his Number One Enabler at their word? I don’t think so.

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