New Batch of E-Mails Add to Clinton Woes Over Server, Foundation

[MikeWB]

A conservative watchdog group released new e-mails Monday that it said show Clinton Foundation donors seeking special access to Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, hours after Donald Trump joined a chorus of critics calling for the charity to shut down.

The e-mails, along with a judge's order Monday for the State Department to expedite its review of almost 15,000 previously undisclosed documents the FBI recovered from Clinton's private e-mail servers, represent a continuing political headache for the Democratic presidential nominee with fewer than 80 days until the election.

"The Clintons have spent decades as insiders lining their own pockets and taking care of donors instead of the American people," Trump, the Republican nominee, said in a statement following the Clinton foundation's announcement Thursday that it will bar foreign and corporate donations if Clinton is elected president.

"It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history," Trump said.
'A Charity'

The Clinton campaign has responded to critics of the foundation by seeking to portray her as more committed to transparency -- and to charity -- than Trump is.

"The Clinton Foundation is a charity that helps people around the world. It's already announced major steps it'll take if Clinton wins," tweeted Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon after highlighting a New York Times report Saturday that Trump's business interests owe at least $650 million, double what is indicated in his public election filings, and that lenders include the Bank of China and Goldman Sachs.

"Trump's businesses exist to enrich himself, involve a web of shady connections, & still he hasn't committed to divesting his holdings," Fallon said.

A representative for the foundation didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

For a QuickTake Q&A on the Clinton Foundation as a target, click here.

Leading Republicans aren't the only ones saying the foundation's plan falls short. The GOP has sought to characterize the charity as a pay-to-play scheme that allowed wealthy donors and foreign governments to influence Clinton when she was the top U.S. diplomat from 2009-2013.

"It'd be impossible to keep the foundation open without at least the appearance of a problem" if Clinton is elected, said former Governor Ed Rendell, a Pennsylvania Democrat who supports Clinton, according to a New York Daily News story published Saturday.

The foundation should stop taking donations and, if Clinton is elected, it should shut down, the Boston Globe editorial board said Tuesday.
New E-Mails

The latest batch of e-mails released by Judicial Watch signaled more potential trouble. The conservative group said the documents include e-mail exchanges not previously turned over to the State Department. They include exchanges between Clinton and Huma Abedin, her close aide at the State Department, and between Abedin and Doug Band, who was former President Bill Clinton's aide and an official with the foundation.

The e-mails suggest beneficiaries of their efforts included Crown Prince Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain and Casey Wasserman, chairman and chief executive officer of the Wasserman Media Group.

"These new e-mails confirm that Hillary Clinton abused her office by selling favors to Clinton Foundation donors," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. "There needs to be a serious, independent investigation to determine whether Clinton and others broke the law."

Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for Clinton's campaign, said in a statement that Judicial Watch, a "right-wing organization that has been going after the Clintons since the 1990s, is distorting facts to make utterly false attacks. No matter how this group tries to mischaracterize these documents, the fact remains that Hillary Clinton never took action as Secretary of State because of donations to the Clinton Foundation."

A lawyer for Abedin, who is now vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign, didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Trump's Focus

Trump's renewed focus on the foundation follows a week of sweeping changes to his campaign leadership as he seeks to gain ground on Clinton. She leads him in national polls by an average of 5.5 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.

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His new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, has had deep involvement in the effort to cast doubt on the Hillary and Bill Clinton's finances. Bannon's group produced "Clinton Cash," a book scrutinizing their activities. Bannon and new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway are close to the conservative megadonor Robert Mercer, whose daughter Rebekah Mercer was co-executive producer of the movie version of the book.

Bloomberg Politics polling this month showed the foundation is an area of political vulnerability for Clinton. More than half of likely voters, 53 percent, said they were bothered a lot by the foundation's acceptance of money from foreign governments when Clinton was secretary of state. Another 21 percent said they were bothered a little by it.

Conway -- who encouraged viewers to "go see 'Clinton Cash'" during a CNBC interview Monday -- said the Trump campaign senses opportunity after two weeks of tumult.

"We'll look back and say, 'Why in the world didn't Hillary Clinton's campaign totally put us away in those two weeks?'" Conway said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-08-22/clinton-foundation-under-heat-as-trump-urges-immediate-close