Alfonse D'Amato

Clinton Foundation or personal bank account?

Posted

It should come as no surprise that Hillary Clinton and her family have become embroiled in yet another scandal.

The Clinton email scandal is the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans. However, the latest Associated Press report documenting the pay-to-play atmosphere in the State Department during Clinton’s reign as secretary of state is, in my opinion, a tragedy for the American people.

According to the report, at least 85 of the 154 private citizens, with private interests, who met with or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she was secretary had donated to her family charity or pledged commitments. Combined, those 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million to the Clinton Foundation. Twenty of the 85 donors gave more than $1 million.

There is clearly a direct conflict of interest between Clinton Foundation donors and Clinton’s actions and the meetings she took while at the State Department. It is apparent that there was a price for admission to meet face to face with her, and that price was a donation to the foundation. Wall Street executives, celebrities and representatives of foreign governments lined up and were eager to open up their checkbooks in order to secure meetings.

According to the report, then Secretary Clinton met with representatives of at least 16 foreign governments. They donated as much as $170 million to the foundation. These numbers are astounding!

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said of the report, “It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins. It is now abundantly clear that the Clintons set up a business to profit from public office.”

I have kept a close watch on the Clinton Foundation and the Clintons’ pay-to-play antics for some time. What opened my eyes to what I believe is the worst offense committed by the Clintons was the book “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.”

The book details Hillary Clinton’s role in selling off control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the U.S. to Russia. At the center of allowing Russia to gradually assume control of the Canadian mining company Uranium One was $145 million in donations to the Clinton Foundation or Clinton initiatives made by the big players in the deal.

The ultimate authority to approve or reject the Russian acquisition of Uranium One, the leading uranium producer in the U.S., rested with the cabinet officials of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Hillary Clinton was a cabinet official on the committee, and Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation had accepted over $100 million in donations from people associated with Uranium One.

Hillary pushed through the deal that gave Russia alarming control over a sizable portion of America’s uranium production capacity. This represented the direct sale of our nation’s security.

If the Clintons were willing to sell our nation’s uranium production to Russia, putting our national security at risk, what else were they willing to offer for sale?

Americans deserve to know how much money the Clintons received for speaking engagements and donations by individuals involved in the sale of Uranium One to Russia. However, investigation after investigation seems to come and go, with no real consequences for Hillary. This double standard tells the American people that if your last name is Clinton and you’re a member of the powerful elite, you can lie, cheat and make millions of dollars with no repercussions.

I believe that a special investigation needs to be launched to examine the relationships between Clinton Foundation donors and the State Department while Hillary was secretary of state. I urge the American public to demand answers before November’s election.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? ADAmato@liherald.com.