Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn, of Texas, is having a little "buyer's remorse" over his decision to vote in favor of confirming Hillary as Secretary of State back in 2009. Cornyn was one of the Republicans that originally held up Hillary's confirmation over concerns that the Clinton Foundation created an insurmountable "conflict of interest." That said, Republicans, including Cornyn, ended up breaking party lines and confirmed Clinton after the Foundation entered into a "memorandum of understanding" that called for, among other things, transparency around donations, particularly those from foreign governments.
That said, Cornyn now says that all the "reassurances she gave me back at the time her confirmation was considered" have for all practical purposes been "violated." Per comments made to The Hill:
“Once again the rules don’t apply to them like they apply to everybody else. Can you imagine if anybody else in the United States government had tried to get away with something like this? It wouldn’t have happened.”
“When I put a hold on Mrs. Clinton’s nomination as Secretary of State, she reassured me that they would take appropriate steps. As seems to be usual for the Clintons, they crossed the line and all the concerns that she reassured me would not occur did in fact occur."
“She was playing both sides. As she was performing her job of secretary of State, the Clinton Foundation was shaking down donors who were buying access. It’s absolutely deplorable.”
“The reassurances she gave me back at the time her confirmation was considered, she, for all practical purposes, violated. Those representations she made to me about the integrity of the screening process and of the ethics concerns with regard to the foundation.”
The MOU, included below in its entirety for your reading pleasure, stated that, among other things, the Clinton Foundation would publish the names of all its existing contributors as well as the names of all new contributors. The MOU was executed in December 2008 between the Clinton Foundation and President Obama's office.
The Parties seek to ensure that the activities of the Foundation, however beneficial, do no create conflicts or the appearance of conflicts for the Senator Clinton as Secretary of State.
In anticipation of Senator Clinton's nomination and confirmation as Secretary of State, the Foundation will publish its contributors this year. During any service by Senator Clinton as Secretary of State, the Foundation will publish annually the names of new contributors.
Should an existing contributing country elect to increase materially is commitment, or should a new contributor country elect to support CHAJ, the Foundation will share such countries and the circumstances of the anticipated contribution with the State Department designated agency ethics official for review, and as appropriate, the State Department's designated agency ethics official will submit the matter for review by a designated official in the White House Counsel's office. In the event the State Department or White House has concerns about a proposed contribution that are related to Senator Clinton's service as Secretary of State, those concerns will be conveyed to her and to the Clinton Foundation for appropriate action. For purposes of this paragraph, an agency or department of a foreign country, as well as a government-owned corporation, will be treated as a foreign country.
But it wasn't long before the Clinton Foundation was found to be in breach of the MOU.
Per The Hill, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, a fund within the foundation, did not meet its reporting requirements from 2009 to 2013. Moreover, Clinton Foundation officials acknowledged to The Washington Post last year that they made a mistake by not seeking prior approval from the State Department ethics office for a $500,000 donation from the Algerian government.
In addition, State Department records obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch and made public last month showed that Doug Band, a senior executive at the Clinton Foundation, helped set up a meeting between Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain with Clinton in 2009 after the prince’s efforts to reach out through normal channels failed. Band described Salman as a “good friend of ours.” By 2010, a scholarship fund set up by Salman gave $32 million to the Clinton Global Initiative, according to Judicial Watch.
Finally, just yesterday we called out the "curious" timing of a meeting between Dow Chemical CEO, Andrew Liveris, and Hillary back in July 2009 (see "Did Foundation Donor Dow Chemical Seek Hillary "Favor" To Settle $9 Billion Lawsuit With Kuwait?"). Per the email below from Huma, apparently Bill was really eager for Hillary to meet up with the CEO of the large Clinton Foundation donor. That said, we're sure it had nothing to do with open litigation initiated by Dow Chemical against Kuwait (another large Clinton Foundation donor) for backing out of the $17 billion K-Dow joint venture that would have netted Dow Chemical $9 billion in cash.
From: Huma Abedin Huma@clintonemail.com
To: Valmoro, Lona J
Sent: Monday, Jul 27 06:02:01 2009
Subject:
Wjc wants to be sure hrc sees Andrew Liveris, ceo of dow tomorrow night. Apparently he is head of us china business council. Is he definitely going to be there?
But we urge Senator Cornyn to relax. While there seems to be a lot of smoke here, Hillary has assured us that these are all simple, honest mistakes and there "is no fire."
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