“Hillary Clinton is a walking conflict of interest”, said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund on a recent interview on Radio Sputnik’s “Loud and Clear”. “In 2009, as the newly appointed Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton had to sign an oath –part of U.S. ethics laws, actually– confirming she had no financial conflicts with the Clinton Foundation. However, emails from Douglas Band, President of Teneo Holdings, now show Ms. Clinton violated this law and in fact continued to maintain financial ties to the Clinton Foundation after becoming Secretary of State.”
In almost any other country, such revelations would be front page news, especially during a Presidential election. However in the United States, many corporate media outlets have downplayed this issue from the moment, last month, when these leaked emails were made public by Wikileaks.
An article in this week’s Washington Post, “Inside Bill Clinton Inc.”, exposed influence peddling within the Clinton family’s “Clinton Foundation”, detailing conflicts of interest such as Bill Clinton being a paid adviser to and client of Teneo Holdings, while his wife served in the State Department.
Another example includes, Huma Abedin, being a paid, senior adviser to Teneo Holdings while she was Mrs. Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff. Likewise, Declan Kelly, was a paid consultant for the Clinton family’s “Clinton Foundation” while serving as CEO and founder of Teneo Holdings.
In fact, Teneo clients donated so much money to the Clintons, that Bill Clinton once boasted, “I couldn’t have accomplished half of what I have in my post-presidency without Doug Band.”
These emails demonstrate many examples of ways the Clintons have long benefited from money they’ve received from lobbyists for foreign governments. Most noteworthy among them involving foreign mining company, Uranium One, which sought to own 1/5 of all uranium mining rights inside the United States. Uranium One’s deal was stalled, however, the U.S. government considered it a “national security issue” to have so much of its own uranium controlled by a “foreign” agent –in this case, Russia. The sale first had to be approved by the State Department, which at the time was headed by, Hillary Clinton. The State Department signed off on the sale. As a result, the former President, Bill Clinton, was paid half a million dollars to speak in Moscow on behalf of Russian mining corporation, “Uranium One”.
The New York Times reported Uranium One’s chairman contributed $2.35 million to Bill and Hillary’s Clinton Foundation, noting, however, “those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors.”
Whats more, while serving as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, sold the Saudi government eighty F-15 fighter jets made by Boeing. Boeing itself donated $900 thousand to the Clinton Foundation. The resulting weapons sales by the U.S. to the Saudi government was $29.4 billion, in spite of the fact that Clinton’s own emails disclosed she was fully aware at the time that the Saudis were arming and financing Al Qaeda, ISIS and other groups branded by the U.S. government as “terrorist” organizations.
The ANSWER Coalition, of which the Party for Socialism and Liberation is a member organization, has announced a protest on Inauguration Day – January 20, 2017. Help build this action and join thousands of working and oppressed communities in Washington, D.C.’s Freedom Plaza to demand systemic change, no matter who wins the election!
