Loan ties Hillary’s campaign to Bill’s fundraising

May 9, 2008

By Greg Gordon

Hillary Rodham Clinton's decision to lend her presidential campaign $6.4 million from assets she holds jointly with her husband is rekindling questions about millions of dollars that special interests have paid Bill Clinton for speeches and other work since he left the White House.

In tapping some of that cash, "the Clintons have effectively bypassed campaign finance reform in a manner that's ingenious — using Bill Clinton effectively as a front for the fundraising," said Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor.

Since 2001, the ex-president has spoken roughly 250 times on tours worldwide that brought him more than $40 million.

The sponsors have included investment banks that later suffered billions of dollars in losses in the subprime mortgage debacle and now have a big stake in regulatory changes; an insurance group with an interest in any overhaul of the health care system; a group that favors the reunification of Taiwan with mainland China; a Colombian business development group that backs a free-trade agreement; and more than two dozen Jewish groups, synagogues and museums.

Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson dismissed concerns, saying, "There are no conflicts of interest, and every dollar either of (the Clintons) have made is all publicly available."

However, said Jacobs, the director of the university's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, "There appear to be a number of prominent, wealthy corporations in the financial services sector, the health care sector and others that stand to gain considerably from the election of Hillary Clinton as president."

When Hillary Clinton lent her campaign $5 million in early February, she made it clear that those funds came from her own money. Her pre-tax earnings have totaled about $11 million from her salary as a New York senator and from advances and royalties for her book Living History.

But her last-ditch decision to tap joint funds to remain financially competitive with rival Barack Obama exposes her husband's financial dealings over the last seven years to greater scrutiny.

On Wednesday, when Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson disclosed that she'd lent her campaign $6.4 million more since April 11, he said that the funds came from their shared assets. Wolfson said that Clinton is legally entitled to use up to 50 percent of their jointly held assets for her campaign.

Source: Mcclatchy-Tribune

Posted by Justin Thyme · Filed Under Hillary Clinton, News, Scandals, Top Story

Comments

One Response to “Loan ties Hillary’s campaign to Bill’s fundraising”

Desparaged on May 17th, 2008 2:30 pm

The dirty financial dealings of the clintons are reminescent of the mob? Dirty money just like dirty laundry appears to be washed in private albeit spent in public. How do they continue to get away with all the wrongs?

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Loan ties Hillary’s campaign to Bill’s fundraising

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