Judicial Watch: New Documents Expose Even More Clinton Conflicts of Interest
Thursday evening, the governmental watchdog organizations Judicial Watch announced it has obtained 508 pages of documents related to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit it filed, seeking information about possible conflicts of interest between the actions taken by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and President Bill Clinton’s activities.
The organization said that of those documents, more than 440 pages were redacted either in full, or with only minor notations remaining. They were recently released following a court order in the May 2013 case Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State.
Among the documents is an unsigned, undated, memorandum titled “Private Sector Opportunities for [William Jefferson Clinton]. It provided a detailed capabilities analysis of three companies with major investment interests in Haiti: Tetra Pak, Seaboard and Cemex.
Judicial Watch’s announcement regarding the emails states:
The documents also include a lengthy March 2009 email from Clinton Foundation Director of Foreign Policy Amitabh Desai to former Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro and subsequently forwarded to top Clinton aid Jake Sullivan containing the names of nearly 200 then-current and former heads of state to be invited to the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting.
The list includes dignitaries from Saudi Arabia, which gave $14.5 million to the Clinton Foundation; Kuwait, which gave between $5 and $10 million; Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar—all of which donated between $1 and $5 million over the years. In February 2015, the Washington Post reported, “A third of foundation donors who have given more than $1 million are foreign governments or other entities … and foreign donors make up more than half of those who have given more than $5 million.”
In July 2014, Judicial Watch released more than 200 conflict-of-interest reviews by State Department ethics advisers of proposed Bill Clinton speaking and consulting engagements during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. The documents show that Mr. Clinton’s office proposed 215 speeches around the globe. And 215 times, the State Department stated that it had “no objection.”
The Washington Examiner published a report by Judicial Watch Chief Investigative Reporter Micah Morrison and Examiner Senior Watchdog Reporter Luke Rosiak that notes Mr. Clinton “earned $48 million while his wife presided over U.S. foreign policy, raising questions about whether the Clintons fulfilled ethics agreements related to the Clinton Foundation during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.”
Judicial Watch President Thom Fitton said it was scandalous that the Obama administration stalled the release of “smoking gun documents” for more than five years. He said they show the Clinton Machine sought to “shake down” every country in the world.
“President-elect Trump can’t move fast enough to launch a serious criminal investigation of the Clinton cash machine,” he added.