[h=2]Just 22 People Have Combined To Give $43 Million to Pro-Clinton Super PACs[/h]SHARE
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BY: Joe Schoffstall
April 15, 2016 5:35 pm
Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is receiving a major boost from a small group of deep-pocketed donors who have combined to give $43 million to super PACs supporting her nomination, an analysis of campaign finance filings by InsideGov shows.
The three major super PACs backing Clinton– Correct the Record, American Bridge 21st Century, and Priorities USA Action– have collected nearly $70 million to date with the help of wealthy liberal donors cutting checks in the seven-figure range. Of the $70 million these groups have raised, 62 percent has come in the form of contributions totaling $1 million or more.
Hedge fund manager and liberal billionaire George Soros has provided $8 million to the pro-Clinton PACs, making him the largest contributor. Soros dished $7 million to Priorities USA and another $1 million to American Bridge.
Donald Sussman, also a hedge fund manager, chipped in $2.5 million to Priorities USA while James Simons, another hedge funder, gave $3.5 million to the group. Henry Laufer, a business associate of Simons, gave $1 million to Priorities while his wife, Marsha, added another $1 million.
Slim Fast owner Daniel Abraham cut two checks to Priorities totaling $2 million. Fred Eychaner, the owner Newsweb Corporation, gave $2 million as well. Entertainment mogul Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl, each provided Priorities USA with $2.5 million donations.
Venture capitalist J.B Pritzker and his wife, Mary Kathryn, gave $1.9 million a piece to Priorities. Herbert M. Sandler, the former Co-CEO of Golden West Financial Corporation and World Savings Bank, has also given $3.5 million to the committee.
In total, InsideGov found that just 22 individuals were responsible for supplying the super PACs with $43 million in contributions–more than half what they have raised to date.
California and New York are home to the most generous donors giving to the pro-Clinton super PACs, with individuals from the two states combining to pour $38.9 million into their funding.
Democratic donors in California have given $19.7 million worth of donations– $13 million in the amount of $1 million or more — while New York-based donors have chipped in $19.2 million, $16.5 million from contributions in the seven-figures.
Super PACs supporting Clinton have hauled in $69,433,502, an amount that is greater than any super PAC backing any of the remaining candidates.
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BY: Joe Schoffstall
April 15, 2016 5:35 pm
Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is receiving a major boost from a small group of deep-pocketed donors who have combined to give $43 million to super PACs supporting her nomination, an analysis of campaign finance filings by InsideGov shows.
The three major super PACs backing Clinton– Correct the Record, American Bridge 21st Century, and Priorities USA Action– have collected nearly $70 million to date with the help of wealthy liberal donors cutting checks in the seven-figure range. Of the $70 million these groups have raised, 62 percent has come in the form of contributions totaling $1 million or more.
Hedge fund manager and liberal billionaire George Soros has provided $8 million to the pro-Clinton PACs, making him the largest contributor. Soros dished $7 million to Priorities USA and another $1 million to American Bridge.
Donald Sussman, also a hedge fund manager, chipped in $2.5 million to Priorities USA while James Simons, another hedge funder, gave $3.5 million to the group. Henry Laufer, a business associate of Simons, gave $1 million to Priorities while his wife, Marsha, added another $1 million.
Slim Fast owner Daniel Abraham cut two checks to Priorities totaling $2 million. Fred Eychaner, the owner Newsweb Corporation, gave $2 million as well. Entertainment mogul Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl, each provided Priorities USA with $2.5 million donations.
Venture capitalist J.B Pritzker and his wife, Mary Kathryn, gave $1.9 million a piece to Priorities. Herbert M. Sandler, the former Co-CEO of Golden West Financial Corporation and World Savings Bank, has also given $3.5 million to the committee.
In total, InsideGov found that just 22 individuals were responsible for supplying the super PACs with $43 million in contributions–more than half what they have raised to date.
California and New York are home to the most generous donors giving to the pro-Clinton super PACs, with individuals from the two states combining to pour $38.9 million into their funding.
Democratic donors in California have given $19.7 million worth of donations– $13 million in the amount of $1 million or more — while New York-based donors have chipped in $19.2 million, $16.5 million from contributions in the seven-figures.
Super PACs supporting Clinton have hauled in $69,433,502, an amount that is greater than any super PAC backing any of the remaining candidates.
APRIL 16, 2016 1:20 PM
[h=1]Inside Panama Papers: Multiple Clinton connections[/h]
Some donors to Clinton foundation used the Panamanian law firm for offshores
Connections come from the more than 40 years Bill and Hillary Clinton have spent in public life
Clinton criticized those exposed in the Panama Papers, some looking to hide their wealth
[h=1]Inside Panama Papers: Multiple Clinton connections[/h]
Some donors to Clinton foundation used the Panamanian law firm for offshores
Connections come from the more than 40 years Bill and Hillary Clinton have spent in public life
Clinton criticized those exposed in the Panama Papers, some looking to hide their wealth
1 of 4
Offshore corporations have one main purpose - to create anonymity. Recently leaked documents reveal that some of these shell companies, cloaked in secrecy, provide cover for dictators, politicians and tax evaders. Sohail Al-Jamea and Ali Rizvi / McClatchy
BY ANITA KUMAR, MARISA TAYLOR AND KEVIN G. HALL
McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities.
Among them are Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate; Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has traveled the globe with Bill Clinton; the Chagoury family, which pledged $1 billion in projects to the Clinton Global Initiative; and Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was at the center of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president. Also using the Panamanian law firm was the company founded by the late billionaire investor Marc Rich, an international fugitive when Bill Clinton pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.
[h=4]THE SECRET SHELL GAME[/h]A look inside how the wealthy and famous hide money.
MORE ON THIS STORY
[h=5]Video: The secret shell game explained[/h]THE REST OF THE SERIES
[h=5]Massive leak exposes dark world of shell corporations[/h][h=5]Mexican tycoon sought shelter for his millions[/h][h=5]Secret offshore money helps fuel Miami real estate boom[/h][h=5]Secret offshore companies trace back to condo featured on Miami Vice[/h][h=5]After Panama papers leak: U.S., Britain press for names[/h][h=5]How a drug lord washed her profits[/h][h=5]The new offshore haven: Wyoming[/h][h=5]Fast-living Italian fugitive used Miami firms in alleged laundering scheme[/h][h=5]Stoner gun-runner drama shows up in offshore leaks[/h](COMING SOON)
[h=5]The middlemen who create a pipeline[/h]
The ties are both recent and decades old, not surprising for the Democratic presidential front-runner and her husband, who have been in public life since the 1970s.
Each is listed in the massive leak of data from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm with expertise in registering offshore companies, which can have legitimate business purposes, but can also be used to evade taxes and launder money. Several heads of state were found in the leak, leading to the departure of the leader of Iceland and investigations in several other countries.
McClatchy Newspapers and about 350 other journalists working under the umbrella of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have searched an archive containing more than 11.5 million Mossack Fonseca documents, including passports, financial records and emails. After a series of articles earlier this month revealed how business owners and politicians used offshores, authorities raided the law firm’s offices in Panama. The law firm has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
Hillary Clinton condemned what she called “outrageous tax havens and loopholes that super-rich people across the world are exploiting.”
“Now, some of this behavior is clearly against the law, and everyone who violates the law anywhere should be held accountable,” she said, speaking at the AFL-CIO convention recently. “But it’s also scandalous how much is actually legal.”
The Clintons themselves do not appear to be in Mossack Fonseca’s database, nor does it appear that their daughter, Chelsea, or her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, who co-founded a hedge fund, are listed. But Bill and Hillary Clinton’s connections to people who have used offshores is fuel for her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders.
Clinton has struggled throughout her campaign to show that she can relate to working Americans, while Sanders has cast her as a wealthy out-of-touch Washington insider who hasaccepted hefty paychecks for speeches and received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from those tied to big businesses. Her connection to the Panama Papers, even if indirect, could magnify that perception.
[h=4]An unprecedented look at offshores[/h]A database leak at the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama exposes how it hides money for its clients.
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, said it would draw voters’ attention once again to Clinton’s ties to big money. “It certainly would play into Sanders’ narrative,” he said.
Sanders said Clinton’s support of a free-trade agreement between the U.S. and Panama – one that he claims has allowed the wealthy to avoid paying taxes – should disqualify her from being the Democratic nominee for president.
“I don’t think you are qualified if you supported the Panama free trade agreement, something I very strongly opposed, which has made it easier for wealthy people and corporations all over the world to avoid paying taxes owed to their countries,” Sanders said recently.
To be sure, a long life in politics has allowed the Clintons to accumulate relationships to wealthy people and businesses across the globe.
One such connection is to Jean-Raymond Boulle, a one-time diamond miner from the volcanic island nation of Mauritius whose company was once based in Bill Clinton’s hometown of Hope, Ark. In the mid 1990s, Boulle was listed as a director of Auk Limited, a British Virgin Islands offshore company, and Gridco Limited, a Bahamas offshore company.
After two meetings with Boulle, Bill Clinton, then-governor of Arkansas, signed legislation allowing his company to engage in exploratory mining in the state. Later, Boulle and his wife attended Clinton’s first inauguration. Boulle’s company did not respond to a message.
Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon declined to answer specific questions about her connections but referred to Clinton’s earlier comments that criticized the behavior last week. Bill Clinton’s office and the Clinton Foundation declined to comment.
Also among the Clinton connections is Fialkoff, now a senior adviser to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and director of the city’s Office of Strategic Partnerships. She, her brother, Brett, and her late father, Frank, are listed as shareholders of UPAC Holdings Ltd, a British Virgin Islands offshore company incorporated in June 2012.
Gabrielle Fialkoff said in an email that she has “no knowledge” of the company and referred questions to her brother.
Brett Fialkoff, who serves as chief operating officer at his family’s business, Haskell Jewels, a New York-based designer, marketer and distributor of costume jewelry, initially told McClatchy he didn’t know why his family would be in the documents. Later, he said that someone must have opened an account in their names.
Still, later, he said he set up an offshore company to export accessories from China to the United States. The documents indicate the company’s files are registered in Beijing.
But, he said, he abandoned the new business to give more attention to his family’s jewelry company. He said there’s no money in any bank account overseas and declined to provide details about his compliance with U.S. tax laws.
“I have news for you: There is no money,” he said in a phone interview. “We’re not like Vladimir Putin, trying to hide money.”
The most recent Mossack Fonseca information of December 2015 shows the company remains active, registered on behalf of the Fialkoffs in the British Virgin Islands by a Hong Kong-based consulting company on June 6, 2012. Brett Failkoff acknowledged the company is still “legally alive” but said it does not – nor has it ever – conducted any business.
Gabrielle Fialkoff, a longtime friend of de Blasio, was finance director for Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, which de Blasio managed. After serving as Haskell’s president and chief operating officer, she chaired de Blasio’s inauguration and led New York’s unsuccessful bid to host the Democratic National Convention in 2016.
She has been a regular donor to Democratic candidates, including Clinton, according to theCenter for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics. She also donated between $250 and $1,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Her father donated to Clinton as well. Her brother contributed money to Republicans, including presidential candidates Ben Carson and Rand Paul.
Another connection is Giustra, the director of UrAsia Energy Ltd, a British Virgin Islands offshore company registered in May 2005.
The company wanted to “conduct uranium exploration, development, production and marketing operations and related activities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,” according to a draft of the shareholders’ agreement.
UrAsia, based in British Columbia, Canada, finalized a deal in September 2005 to buy uranium mines for $500 million in Kazakhstan, according to published reports.
The deal came after Giustra joined Bill Clinton in Kazakhstan for the launch of a Clinton Foundation health initiative and dined with him and Kazakhstan’s president, among others. The timing prompted questions about whether Bill Clinton played any role in the agreement. Giustra denied that, saying it came after months of negotiations.
The following year, Giustra, who is also involved in filmmaking and founded Lionsgate Entertainment, made a donation of more than $30 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to published reports.
In total, Giustra has committed $100 million to the foundation, according to at least one report, though foundation records don’t give an exact amount, saying only that he is one of the largest individual donors giving more than $25 million. In 2007, he started an affiliated charity that bears his name and initially kept its donors secret despite a 2008 agreement between the Clintons and the Obama administration to make public foundation contributors.
Bill Clinton has flown around the globe on Giustra’s plane, sometimes with him, including to Kazakhstan.
Messages left for Giustra on his cell phone and by email and at several of his companies were not returned.
Former fugitive billionaire Marc Rich’s name doesn’t appear in the Panama Papers, but his company does. The Bahamas offshore Industrial Petroleum Limited was registered in 1992, established by the commodities firm Glencore International in Switzerland, inactivated in 2001.
The allegations against Rich, who died in 2013, ranged from tax evasion to trading with Iran despite bans to selling oil to South Africa’s apartheid government. He fled to Switzerland in 1983, but before the pardon, his ex-wife Denise made a $450,000 donation to Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock.
Rich’s business partners appear in the data too. And they also give generously to the Clinton Foundation.
Sergei Kurzin, a Russian engineer and investor, appears in a draft shareholders agreement in partnership with Giustra in the British Virgin Islands offshore UrAsia Energy Ltd. Kurzin worked closely with Rich in the 1990s looking for opportunities in the former Soviet Union when it was opened to mining and oil investment.
Kurzin, who has given the Clinton Foundation between $50,000 and $100,000, appears in the Panama Papers as the director and chairman of various oil companies. Kurzin was also a partner in the uranium deal involving Giustra.
In a 2009 interview with Forbes, the British-Russian dual citizen boasted of giving generously to a Clinton-Giustra initiative, noting: “I wrote a check for a million dollars. I don’t think you can call it a small amount.”
Messages left for Kurzin were not returned this weekend.
Also in the Panama Papers is Ronald Chagoury, who along with brother Gilbert leads the Chagoury Group, a Nigerian family-run construction business. The brothers were associated with Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, who died in 1998, and did business with Glencore and Rich, according to news reports.
Ronald Chagoury appears in the Panama Papers as the main shareholder of Echo Art Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands.
In 2009, the Chagoury Group pledged $1 billion in coastal erosion projects to the Clinton Global Initiative, an offshoot of the foundation, according to the initiative's website.
The Chagoury Group is building Eko Atlantic, a peninsula city adjacent to Lagos that will be reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. The company’s website cites the Clinton Global Initiative’s praise for it as an “environmentally conscious city” under construction.
Gilbert Chagoury’s ties to the Clintons stretch back years. He has given to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns and has donated between $1 million to $5 million to Clinton Foundation, foundation records show. In 2003 he organized a trip to the Caribbean where Bill Clinton was paid $100,000 for a speech.
Messages left for the Chagourys were not returned this weekend.
Another businessman in the Panama papers, Ng, is listed as a shareholder of two British Virgin Islands companies – South South News International Group Ltd in May 2010 and GOLUCK Ltd. in 2004.
He leads a real estate development company in Macau, China, and is one of the world’s wealthiest people. He was accused in 1996 of sending more than $1.1 million to a Little Rock restaurant owner who then contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic National Committee, according to a 1998 Senate committee investigation.
The restaurant owner, Charlie Trie, pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws. Ng was not charged. Another congressional report criticized Ng and others for failing to cooperate during the investigation.
Published reports say Ng visited the White House 10 times from 1994 to 1996, had his photograph taken with Bill and Hillary Clinton, sat beside Bill Clinton at an event at a Washington hotel, and rode in an elevator with Hillary Clinton.
Last year, Ng was charged with bribing a United Nations official and lying about what he was doing with $4.5 million in cash he brought into the U.S. over two years. Investigators say instead of spending it at casinos or on art, antiques or real estate, he used the money for bribes as he sought investments in Antigua and China. Another man listed in the same criminal complaint is president of the New York-based South South News, the same name of the British Virgin Islands company.
Ng’s lawyer, Kevin Tung, has said that his charges are based on a misunderstanding. Tung, Benjamin Brafman and Hugh Mo, two others who are or have represented Ng, did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2011, Sanders predicted in a Senate speech that the Panama trade deal would make it easier for the wealthy to hide their cash in Panama.
“I wish I had been proven wrong about this, but it has now come to light that the extent of Panama’s tax avoidance scams is even worse than I had feared,” he said in a statement earlier this month.
Hillary Clinton had opposed the deal in 2008 when she was running for president. But later, as secretary of state, she helped push the agreement through Congress. Her supporters, however, say that the trade pact did not open the door to additional tax evasion.
A Democrat-controlled Senate approved the trade deal. In October 2012, then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., lauded the deal’s “strong language to crack down on tax evasion and money-laundering in Panama.”
Both Clinton and Sanders have vowed to go after Americans who try to hide their wealth.
Clinton said she would shut down what she called the private tax system for the wealthy while Sanders has said he would end the trade deal with Panama within six months and investigate U.S. banks, corporations and individuals stashing their cash in Panama to avoid taxes.
“We’re going after all these scams and make sure that everyone pays their fair share here in America,” she said. “I’m going to hold them accountable, and we’re going to have a special effort to track all these resources wherever they might lead.”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article72215012.html#storylink=cpy
McClatchy Washington Bureau
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WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities.
Among them are Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate; Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has traveled the globe with Bill Clinton; the Chagoury family, which pledged $1 billion in projects to the Clinton Global Initiative; and Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was at the center of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president. Also using the Panamanian law firm was the company founded by the late billionaire investor Marc Rich, an international fugitive when Bill Clinton pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.
[h=4]THE SECRET SHELL GAME[/h]A look inside how the wealthy and famous hide money.
[h=5]Video: The secret shell game explained[/h]THE REST OF THE SERIES
[h=5]Massive leak exposes dark world of shell corporations[/h][h=5]Mexican tycoon sought shelter for his millions[/h][h=5]Secret offshore money helps fuel Miami real estate boom[/h][h=5]Secret offshore companies trace back to condo featured on Miami Vice[/h][h=5]After Panama papers leak: U.S., Britain press for names[/h][h=5]How a drug lord washed her profits[/h][h=5]The new offshore haven: Wyoming[/h][h=5]Fast-living Italian fugitive used Miami firms in alleged laundering scheme[/h][h=5]Stoner gun-runner drama shows up in offshore leaks[/h](COMING SOON)
[h=5]The middlemen who create a pipeline[/h]
The ties are both recent and decades old, not surprising for the Democratic presidential front-runner and her husband, who have been in public life since the 1970s.
Each is listed in the massive leak of data from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm with expertise in registering offshore companies, which can have legitimate business purposes, but can also be used to evade taxes and launder money. Several heads of state were found in the leak, leading to the departure of the leader of Iceland and investigations in several other countries.
McClatchy Newspapers and about 350 other journalists working under the umbrella of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have searched an archive containing more than 11.5 million Mossack Fonseca documents, including passports, financial records and emails. After a series of articles earlier this month revealed how business owners and politicians used offshores, authorities raided the law firm’s offices in Panama. The law firm has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
Hillary Clinton condemned what she called “outrageous tax havens and loopholes that super-rich people across the world are exploiting.”
“Now, some of this behavior is clearly against the law, and everyone who violates the law anywhere should be held accountable,” she said, speaking at the AFL-CIO convention recently. “But it’s also scandalous how much is actually legal.”
The Clintons themselves do not appear to be in Mossack Fonseca’s database, nor does it appear that their daughter, Chelsea, or her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, who co-founded a hedge fund, are listed. But Bill and Hillary Clinton’s connections to people who have used offshores is fuel for her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders.
Clinton has struggled throughout her campaign to show that she can relate to working Americans, while Sanders has cast her as a wealthy out-of-touch Washington insider who hasaccepted hefty paychecks for speeches and received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from those tied to big businesses. Her connection to the Panama Papers, even if indirect, could magnify that perception.
[h=4]An unprecedented look at offshores[/h]A database leak at the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama exposes how it hides money for its clients.
THE LEAK:
Munich’s Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper was given the files, which were shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.ITS SIZE:
11.5 million emails and client records. It would take 24 hours to download the 2.6 terabytes at normal internet speeds.THE MEDIA PARTNERS:
More than 350 journalists, including a U.S. McClatchy reporting team, in 77 countries examined the data.WHO WAS FOUND:
12 current and former heads of state and government, 61 relatives and associates of leaders, and 128 other public officials.Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, said it would draw voters’ attention once again to Clinton’s ties to big money. “It certainly would play into Sanders’ narrative,” he said.
Sanders said Clinton’s support of a free-trade agreement between the U.S. and Panama – one that he claims has allowed the wealthy to avoid paying taxes – should disqualify her from being the Democratic nominee for president.
“I don’t think you are qualified if you supported the Panama free trade agreement, something I very strongly opposed, which has made it easier for wealthy people and corporations all over the world to avoid paying taxes owed to their countries,” Sanders said recently.
To be sure, a long life in politics has allowed the Clintons to accumulate relationships to wealthy people and businesses across the globe.
One such connection is to Jean-Raymond Boulle, a one-time diamond miner from the volcanic island nation of Mauritius whose company was once based in Bill Clinton’s hometown of Hope, Ark. In the mid 1990s, Boulle was listed as a director of Auk Limited, a British Virgin Islands offshore company, and Gridco Limited, a Bahamas offshore company.
After two meetings with Boulle, Bill Clinton, then-governor of Arkansas, signed legislation allowing his company to engage in exploratory mining in the state. Later, Boulle and his wife attended Clinton’s first inauguration. Boulle’s company did not respond to a message.
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“Obviously there’s no wrongdoing – it’s a question of perception and values,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. “They’ve been in public life so long; when you enter that sphere you have these connections.”
Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon declined to answer specific questions about her connections but referred to Clinton’s earlier comments that criticized the behavior last week. Bill Clinton’s office and the Clinton Foundation declined to comment.
Also among the Clinton connections is Fialkoff, now a senior adviser to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and director of the city’s Office of Strategic Partnerships. She, her brother, Brett, and her late father, Frank, are listed as shareholders of UPAC Holdings Ltd, a British Virgin Islands offshore company incorporated in June 2012.
Gabrielle Fialkoff said in an email that she has “no knowledge” of the company and referred questions to her brother.
Brett Fialkoff, who serves as chief operating officer at his family’s business, Haskell Jewels, a New York-based designer, marketer and distributor of costume jewelry, initially told McClatchy he didn’t know why his family would be in the documents. Later, he said that someone must have opened an account in their names.
Still, later, he said he set up an offshore company to export accessories from China to the United States. The documents indicate the company’s files are registered in Beijing.
But, he said, he abandoned the new business to give more attention to his family’s jewelry company. He said there’s no money in any bank account overseas and declined to provide details about his compliance with U.S. tax laws.
“I have news for you: There is no money,” he said in a phone interview. “We’re not like Vladimir Putin, trying to hide money.”
The most recent Mossack Fonseca information of December 2015 shows the company remains active, registered on behalf of the Fialkoffs in the British Virgin Islands by a Hong Kong-based consulting company on June 6, 2012. Brett Failkoff acknowledged the company is still “legally alive” but said it does not – nor has it ever – conducted any business.
Gabrielle Fialkoff, a longtime friend of de Blasio, was finance director for Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, which de Blasio managed. After serving as Haskell’s president and chief operating officer, she chaired de Blasio’s inauguration and led New York’s unsuccessful bid to host the Democratic National Convention in 2016.
She has been a regular donor to Democratic candidates, including Clinton, according to theCenter for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics. She also donated between $250 and $1,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Her father donated to Clinton as well. Her brother contributed money to Republicans, including presidential candidates Ben Carson and Rand Paul.
Another connection is Giustra, the director of UrAsia Energy Ltd, a British Virgin Islands offshore company registered in May 2005.
The company wanted to “conduct uranium exploration, development, production and marketing operations and related activities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,” according to a draft of the shareholders’ agreement.
UrAsia, based in British Columbia, Canada, finalized a deal in September 2005 to buy uranium mines for $500 million in Kazakhstan, according to published reports.
The deal came after Giustra joined Bill Clinton in Kazakhstan for the launch of a Clinton Foundation health initiative and dined with him and Kazakhstan’s president, among others. The timing prompted questions about whether Bill Clinton played any role in the agreement. Giustra denied that, saying it came after months of negotiations.
The following year, Giustra, who is also involved in filmmaking and founded Lionsgate Entertainment, made a donation of more than $30 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to published reports.
In total, Giustra has committed $100 million to the foundation, according to at least one report, though foundation records don’t give an exact amount, saying only that he is one of the largest individual donors giving more than $25 million. In 2007, he started an affiliated charity that bears his name and initially kept its donors secret despite a 2008 agreement between the Clintons and the Obama administration to make public foundation contributors.
Bill Clinton has flown around the globe on Giustra’s plane, sometimes with him, including to Kazakhstan.
Messages left for Giustra on his cell phone and by email and at several of his companies were not returned.
Former fugitive billionaire Marc Rich’s name doesn’t appear in the Panama Papers, but his company does. The Bahamas offshore Industrial Petroleum Limited was registered in 1992, established by the commodities firm Glencore International in Switzerland, inactivated in 2001.
The allegations against Rich, who died in 2013, ranged from tax evasion to trading with Iran despite bans to selling oil to South Africa’s apartheid government. He fled to Switzerland in 1983, but before the pardon, his ex-wife Denise made a $450,000 donation to Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock.
Rich’s business partners appear in the data too. And they also give generously to the Clinton Foundation.
Sergei Kurzin, a Russian engineer and investor, appears in a draft shareholders agreement in partnership with Giustra in the British Virgin Islands offshore UrAsia Energy Ltd. Kurzin worked closely with Rich in the 1990s looking for opportunities in the former Soviet Union when it was opened to mining and oil investment.
Kurzin, who has given the Clinton Foundation between $50,000 and $100,000, appears in the Panama Papers as the director and chairman of various oil companies. Kurzin was also a partner in the uranium deal involving Giustra.
In a 2009 interview with Forbes, the British-Russian dual citizen boasted of giving generously to a Clinton-Giustra initiative, noting: “I wrote a check for a million dollars. I don’t think you can call it a small amount.”
Messages left for Kurzin were not returned this weekend.
Also in the Panama Papers is Ronald Chagoury, who along with brother Gilbert leads the Chagoury Group, a Nigerian family-run construction business. The brothers were associated with Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, who died in 1998, and did business with Glencore and Rich, according to news reports.
Ronald Chagoury appears in the Panama Papers as the main shareholder of Echo Art Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands.
In 2009, the Chagoury Group pledged $1 billion in coastal erosion projects to the Clinton Global Initiative, an offshoot of the foundation, according to the initiative's website.
The Chagoury Group is building Eko Atlantic, a peninsula city adjacent to Lagos that will be reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. The company’s website cites the Clinton Global Initiative’s praise for it as an “environmentally conscious city” under construction.
Gilbert Chagoury’s ties to the Clintons stretch back years. He has given to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns and has donated between $1 million to $5 million to Clinton Foundation, foundation records show. In 2003 he organized a trip to the Caribbean where Bill Clinton was paid $100,000 for a speech.
Messages left for the Chagourys were not returned this weekend.
Another businessman in the Panama papers, Ng, is listed as a shareholder of two British Virgin Islands companies – South South News International Group Ltd in May 2010 and GOLUCK Ltd. in 2004.
He leads a real estate development company in Macau, China, and is one of the world’s wealthiest people. He was accused in 1996 of sending more than $1.1 million to a Little Rock restaurant owner who then contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic National Committee, according to a 1998 Senate committee investigation.
The restaurant owner, Charlie Trie, pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws. Ng was not charged. Another congressional report criticized Ng and others for failing to cooperate during the investigation.
Published reports say Ng visited the White House 10 times from 1994 to 1996, had his photograph taken with Bill and Hillary Clinton, sat beside Bill Clinton at an event at a Washington hotel, and rode in an elevator with Hillary Clinton.
Last year, Ng was charged with bribing a United Nations official and lying about what he was doing with $4.5 million in cash he brought into the U.S. over two years. Investigators say instead of spending it at casinos or on art, antiques or real estate, he used the money for bribes as he sought investments in Antigua and China. Another man listed in the same criminal complaint is president of the New York-based South South News, the same name of the British Virgin Islands company.
Ng’s lawyer, Kevin Tung, has said that his charges are based on a misunderstanding. Tung, Benjamin Brafman and Hugh Mo, two others who are or have represented Ng, did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2011, Sanders predicted in a Senate speech that the Panama trade deal would make it easier for the wealthy to hide their cash in Panama.
“I wish I had been proven wrong about this, but it has now come to light that the extent of Panama’s tax avoidance scams is even worse than I had feared,” he said in a statement earlier this month.
Hillary Clinton had opposed the deal in 2008 when she was running for president. But later, as secretary of state, she helped push the agreement through Congress. Her supporters, however, say that the trade pact did not open the door to additional tax evasion.
A Democrat-controlled Senate approved the trade deal. In October 2012, then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., lauded the deal’s “strong language to crack down on tax evasion and money-laundering in Panama.”
Both Clinton and Sanders have vowed to go after Americans who try to hide their wealth.
Clinton said she would shut down what she called the private tax system for the wealthy while Sanders has said he would end the trade deal with Panama within six months and investigate U.S. banks, corporations and individuals stashing their cash in Panama to avoid taxes.
“We’re going after all these scams and make sure that everyone pays their fair share here in America,” she said. “I’m going to hold them accountable, and we’re going to have a special effort to track all these resources wherever they might lead.”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article72215012.html#storylink=cpy
cont #3124
'crooked Hillary'
Appropriate nickname given to her by Trump.
+2
Bill and Hillary Clinton have been linked to numerous people named in the Panama Papers, even though the couple denounced the off-shore 'tax havens'
.
+2
While the Clintons themselves are not named in the Panama Papers, donors to the Clinton Foundation, former campaign advisers and a man who was pardoned when Bill Clinton was president
.
Bright eyes1, West coast, United States, 5 hours ago
Incredible how they're so very often linked to stories that involve illegal activities. Wake up Democrats and don't make this shyster your nominee. She needs to be in Big House not the White House.
.William Tim, Boston, United States, 5 hours agoIt wouldn't surprise me if they had an account in an alias name that also donates to the clinton foundation.
.TRUTH Today, Sydney, Australia, 5 hours agoThe Clintons have been lining their own pockets at the American Peoples Expense for years ...Just follow the money trail to the CLINTON FOUNDATION
.KSmith99, New York, United States, 5 hours agoAs if it matters; Clintons are never held responsible for their actions.
.gregg, Wichita, United States, 4 hours agoWhen you run a fake charity with hundreds of millions it's got to catch up to you.
.richwill, Coeur d Alene, 4 hours agoSounds normal for the Clintons.
.Aviator757, SF Bay Area, United States, 3 hours agoI'm absolutely appalled...... Actually no, no I'm not. This shouldn't surprise anyone.
.
+1
Hillary Clinton answered 'I really could care less,' when George Stephanopoulos informed her that Donald Trump had nicknamed her 'crooked Hillary'
.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 13h13 hours ago
I would have millions of votes more than Hillary except for the fact that I had 17 opponents and she just had a socialist named Bernie!
'crooked Hillary'
Appropriate nickname given to her by Trump.
+2
Bill and Hillary Clinton have been linked to numerous people named in the Panama Papers, even though the couple denounced the off-shore 'tax havens'
.
+2
While the Clintons themselves are not named in the Panama Papers, donors to the Clinton Foundation, former campaign advisers and a man who was pardoned when Bill Clinton was president
.
Bright eyes1, West coast, United States, 5 hours ago
Incredible how they're so very often linked to stories that involve illegal activities. Wake up Democrats and don't make this shyster your nominee. She needs to be in Big House not the White House.
.William Tim, Boston, United States, 5 hours agoIt wouldn't surprise me if they had an account in an alias name that also donates to the clinton foundation.
.TRUTH Today, Sydney, Australia, 5 hours agoThe Clintons have been lining their own pockets at the American Peoples Expense for years ...Just follow the money trail to the CLINTON FOUNDATION
.KSmith99, New York, United States, 5 hours agoAs if it matters; Clintons are never held responsible for their actions.
.gregg, Wichita, United States, 4 hours agoWhen you run a fake charity with hundreds of millions it's got to catch up to you.
.richwill, Coeur d Alene, 4 hours agoSounds normal for the Clintons.
.Aviator757, SF Bay Area, United States, 3 hours agoI'm absolutely appalled...... Actually no, no I'm not. This shouldn't surprise anyone.
.
+1
Hillary Clinton answered 'I really could care less,' when George Stephanopoulos informed her that Donald Trump had nicknamed her 'crooked Hillary'
.
I would have millions of votes more than Hillary except for the fact that I had 17 opponents and she just had a socialist named Bernie!
Follow
Donald J. TrumpVerified account@realDonaldTrump
Crooked Hillary Clinton is spending a fortune on ads against me. I am the one person she doesn't want to run against. Will be such fun!
[h=1]George Clooney admits money he raised for Hillary Clinton is 'obscene'[/h]
George Clooney, who hosted big-money fundraisers for Hillary Clinton in California this weekend, has called such fundraising “obscene”.
In response Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s opponent for the Democratic nomination, said he respected Clooney’s “integrity and honesty on this issue” and added: “One of the great tragedies is that big money is buying elections.”
Clinton leads Sanders by double digits in most polls regarding New York, which stages its primary on Tuesday.
The issue of fundraising has been a constant on the campaign trail, as Sanders heralds his reliance on small donors and lack of any fundraising Super Pac. Clooney’s events, however, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, attracted criticism from the Sanders campaign and, on Friday in San Francisco, protests outside the venue.
Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, the actor was asked by host Chuck Todd whether the sums involved in his events, such as $353,400 a couple to be a “co-chair”, were, as critics and protesters have said, obscene.
“Yes,” he said. “I think it’s an obscene amount of money. I think – you know that we had some protesters last night when we pulled up in San Francisco and they’re right to protest, they’re absolutely right, it is an obscene amount of money.
“The Sanders campaign when they talk about it is absolutely right. It’s ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree, completely.”
Sanders also appeared on Sunday morning shows, telling CNN’s State of the Union he had “a lot of respect for George Clooney’s honesty and integrity on this issue”.
“One of the great tragedies is that big money is buying elections,” he said, adding that party leaders should not be “responsive to the needs of Wall Street and wealthy campaign contributors”.
“There is something wrong when a few people, in this case wealthy individuals are able to contribute unbelievably large sums of money,” Sanders said. “That is not what democracy is about. That is a movement toward oligarchy.”
“This is the issue of American politics today. Do we have a government that represents all of us or represents the 1%?”
Sanders was asked, and declined, to name a piece of legislation or decision which Clinton had made when in office that might have been influenced by large donations to her campaigns.
In San Francisco on Friday, nearly 200 Sanders supporters protested outside a fundraiser staged by the tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar and hosted by Clooney and his wife, Amal. Tickets cost from $33,400 to $353,400.
Bill Sandberg, a 29-year-old protester, told the Guardian he had just been laid off from Zedo, an ad tech startup.
“Bernie’s actually for the people,” he said. “Hillary’s just bought and sold.”
On NBC, Clooney, who said he would fundraise for Sanders if he won the nomination, rejected accusations from some protesters that he was a “corporate shill”.
“That’s one of the funnier things you could say about me,” he said.
He said that most of the money he had helped raise for Clinton would actually go to down-ticket Democrats running for Congress. If a Democratic president could get the right justice appointed to the supreme court, he argued, then the US could again begin to separate money from politics.
“We need to take the Senate back because we need to confirm a supreme court justice, because that fifth vote on the supreme court can overturn Citizens United and get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so I never have to do a fundraiser again.”
The actor added that he does not enjoy the fundraisers, and linked the work of his foundation, which traces the wealth of corrupt politicians, to that of the Panama Papers and the supreme court case. “I think Citizens United is one of the worst laws passed since I’ve been around.”
Clooney also showed a willingness to meet pro-Sanders protesters in San Francisco halfway – or at least to indulge in some self-deprecation with them “Their T-shirts said, you know, ‘You sucked as Batman,’” he said.
“And I was like, ‘Well, you kind of got me on that one.’”
- Bernie Sanders praises Hollywood star’s ‘integrity and honesty on this issue’
- Clooney: ‘It’s ridiculous we should have this kind of money in politics’
George Clooney, who hosted big-money fundraisers for Hillary Clinton in California this weekend, has called such fundraising “obscene”.
In response Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s opponent for the Democratic nomination, said he respected Clooney’s “integrity and honesty on this issue” and added: “One of the great tragedies is that big money is buying elections.”
Clinton leads Sanders by double digits in most polls regarding New York, which stages its primary on Tuesday.
The issue of fundraising has been a constant on the campaign trail, as Sanders heralds his reliance on small donors and lack of any fundraising Super Pac. Clooney’s events, however, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, attracted criticism from the Sanders campaign and, on Friday in San Francisco, protests outside the venue.
Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, the actor was asked by host Chuck Todd whether the sums involved in his events, such as $353,400 a couple to be a “co-chair”, were, as critics and protesters have said, obscene.
“Yes,” he said. “I think it’s an obscene amount of money. I think – you know that we had some protesters last night when we pulled up in San Francisco and they’re right to protest, they’re absolutely right, it is an obscene amount of money.
“The Sanders campaign when they talk about it is absolutely right. It’s ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree, completely.”
Sanders also appeared on Sunday morning shows, telling CNN’s State of the Union he had “a lot of respect for George Clooney’s honesty and integrity on this issue”.
“One of the great tragedies is that big money is buying elections,” he said, adding that party leaders should not be “responsive to the needs of Wall Street and wealthy campaign contributors”.
“There is something wrong when a few people, in this case wealthy individuals are able to contribute unbelievably large sums of money,” Sanders said. “That is not what democracy is about. That is a movement toward oligarchy.”
“This is the issue of American politics today. Do we have a government that represents all of us or represents the 1%?”
Sanders was asked, and declined, to name a piece of legislation or decision which Clinton had made when in office that might have been influenced by large donations to her campaigns.
In San Francisco on Friday, nearly 200 Sanders supporters protested outside a fundraiser staged by the tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar and hosted by Clooney and his wife, Amal. Tickets cost from $33,400 to $353,400.
Bill Sandberg, a 29-year-old protester, told the Guardian he had just been laid off from Zedo, an ad tech startup.
“Bernie’s actually for the people,” he said. “Hillary’s just bought and sold.”
On NBC, Clooney, who said he would fundraise for Sanders if he won the nomination, rejected accusations from some protesters that he was a “corporate shill”.
“That’s one of the funnier things you could say about me,” he said.
He said that most of the money he had helped raise for Clinton would actually go to down-ticket Democrats running for Congress. If a Democratic president could get the right justice appointed to the supreme court, he argued, then the US could again begin to separate money from politics.
“We need to take the Senate back because we need to confirm a supreme court justice, because that fifth vote on the supreme court can overturn Citizens United and get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so I never have to do a fundraiser again.”
The actor added that he does not enjoy the fundraisers, and linked the work of his foundation, which traces the wealth of corrupt politicians, to that of the Panama Papers and the supreme court case. “I think Citizens United is one of the worst laws passed since I’ve been around.”
Clooney also showed a willingness to meet pro-Sanders protesters in San Francisco halfway – or at least to indulge in some self-deprecation with them “Their T-shirts said, you know, ‘You sucked as Batman,’” he said.
“And I was like, ‘Well, you kind of got me on that one.’”
[h=2]‘Hypocritical’ Hillary Clinton Gets Trolled on Tax Day[/h]RNC demands Clinton pay her proposed ‘surcharge’ on top earners
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BY: Morgan Chalfant
April 18, 2016 11:37 am
The Republican National Committee sent a letter to Hillary Clinton’s accountant on tax day calling for the Democratic candidate to pay the millions of dollars she would owe the IRS since 2001 under her proposed “surcharge” on top earners.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called Clinton “hypocritical” for proposing an “unprecedented” tax on Americans in the top .01 percent, which includes herself and her husband, and not paying the additional taxes to demonstrate her commitment to her own tax plan.
“I am writing to you on this annual tax day to inquire as to whether Hillary Clinton has chosen to put her money where her mouth is, and pay the additional taxes she is hypocritically proposing that other Americans of similar income pay, but not said she is willing to voluntarily pay herself,” Priebus wrote to Rorrie Gregorio, Clinton’s accountant, in a letter released by the RNC on Monday.
Clinton has proposed that Americans who earn more than $5 million in annual income be slapped with a 4 percent “surcharge,” which would result in the highest top U.S. income tax rate since 1986.
The Clintons have earned more than $186.6 million in taxable income since leaving the White House at the beginning of 2001, Priebus noted in the letter. The couple earned over $22.7 million alone in 2014, the same year that Hillary Clinton claimed to have been “dead broke” when her husband’s term as president ended.
“With the Clintons’ tremendous income, I am calling upon them to fully embrace her new tax by applying the ‘surcharge’ to her family’s previous income since 2001 when her family income has been in excess of $10 million on average annually,” Priebus wrote.
If they applied the surcharge, the Clintons would owe the IRS over $711,000 for the income they earned in 2014, their highest single year of taxable income. They would owe the IRS approximately $4.7 million if they paid the surcharge on all of their reported income since 2001.
“Clinton should practice what she preaches by sending the U.S. Treasury the over $4.6 million she would have owed under her new tax,” Priebus wrote. “In addition, it is imperative that the Clintons continue to lead moving forward, and pay this 4-percent ‘surcharge’ tax on their 2015 federal income tax filings and each year moving forward.”
The RNC also hit the Clintons for “improperly” taking advantage of the U.S. tax code.
“Mrs. Clinton has a particular obligation to honor her tax agenda considering her and her husband’s past and current use of the tax code,” Priebus wrote.
“Whether it was the improper use of interest deductions on their Whitewater real estate loans, or their current use of real estate loopholes to avoid fully paying the estate tax, another tax she seeks to raise, the Clintons can no longer hide their hypocritical penchant for gaming the tax system.”
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Hillary Clinton / AP
BY: Morgan Chalfant
April 18, 2016 11:37 am
The Republican National Committee sent a letter to Hillary Clinton’s accountant on tax day calling for the Democratic candidate to pay the millions of dollars she would owe the IRS since 2001 under her proposed “surcharge” on top earners.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called Clinton “hypocritical” for proposing an “unprecedented” tax on Americans in the top .01 percent, which includes herself and her husband, and not paying the additional taxes to demonstrate her commitment to her own tax plan.
“I am writing to you on this annual tax day to inquire as to whether Hillary Clinton has chosen to put her money where her mouth is, and pay the additional taxes she is hypocritically proposing that other Americans of similar income pay, but not said she is willing to voluntarily pay herself,” Priebus wrote to Rorrie Gregorio, Clinton’s accountant, in a letter released by the RNC on Monday.
Clinton has proposed that Americans who earn more than $5 million in annual income be slapped with a 4 percent “surcharge,” which would result in the highest top U.S. income tax rate since 1986.
The Clintons have earned more than $186.6 million in taxable income since leaving the White House at the beginning of 2001, Priebus noted in the letter. The couple earned over $22.7 million alone in 2014, the same year that Hillary Clinton claimed to have been “dead broke” when her husband’s term as president ended.
“With the Clintons’ tremendous income, I am calling upon them to fully embrace her new tax by applying the ‘surcharge’ to her family’s previous income since 2001 when her family income has been in excess of $10 million on average annually,” Priebus wrote.
If they applied the surcharge, the Clintons would owe the IRS over $711,000 for the income they earned in 2014, their highest single year of taxable income. They would owe the IRS approximately $4.7 million if they paid the surcharge on all of their reported income since 2001.
“Clinton should practice what she preaches by sending the U.S. Treasury the over $4.6 million she would have owed under her new tax,” Priebus wrote. “In addition, it is imperative that the Clintons continue to lead moving forward, and pay this 4-percent ‘surcharge’ tax on their 2015 federal income tax filings and each year moving forward.”
The RNC also hit the Clintons for “improperly” taking advantage of the U.S. tax code.
“Mrs. Clinton has a particular obligation to honor her tax agenda considering her and her husband’s past and current use of the tax code,” Priebus wrote.
“Whether it was the improper use of interest deductions on their Whitewater real estate loans, or their current use of real estate loopholes to avoid fully paying the estate tax, another tax she seeks to raise, the Clintons can no longer hide their hypocritical penchant for gaming the tax system.”
EXCLUSIVE: Disgraced Clinton Donor Got $13M In State Dept Grants Under Hillary
FBI investigating.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/17/e...r-got-13m-in-state-dept-grants-under-hillary/
Can you say up to your ass in alligators?
FBI investigating.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/17/e...r-got-13m-in-state-dept-grants-under-hillary/
Can you say up to your ass in alligators?
Mrs. Clinton said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations that “Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.
” The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway responded with this paraphrase: “ ‘Know your enemy.’ — Sun Tzu. ‘Don’t know even the first thing about your enemy. See how that works out!’ — HRC.”
Mrs. Clinton is not exactly a conviction politician; one suspects that she doesn’t really believe what she’s saying.
Indeed, she contradicted herself in the very next paragraph of the speech, acknowledging that there is a “dangerous stream of extremism within the Muslim world that continues to spread.”
But she wouldn’t have made the absurdly counterfactual statement that Muslims “have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism” if she didn’t think it politically necessary to do so.
Aggressive complacency in the face of terror has been the watchword of this administration, and of the base of the Democratic Party.
” The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway responded with this paraphrase: “ ‘Know your enemy.’ — Sun Tzu. ‘Don’t know even the first thing about your enemy. See how that works out!’ — HRC.”
Mrs. Clinton is not exactly a conviction politician; one suspects that she doesn’t really believe what she’s saying.
Indeed, she contradicted herself in the very next paragraph of the speech, acknowledging that there is a “dangerous stream of extremism within the Muslim world that continues to spread.”
But she wouldn’t have made the absurdly counterfactual statement that Muslims “have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism” if she didn’t think it politically necessary to do so.
Aggressive complacency in the face of terror has been the watchword of this administration, and of the base of the Democratic Party.
Campaign 2016
✕
State of the 2016 race
By John Wagner and Matea Gold April 18 at 6:32 PM
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to Communication Workers of America picketers in midtown Manhattan on Monday. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
This post has been updated.
NEW YORK — On the eve of a crucial Democratic presidential primary here, Bernie Sanders accused rival Hillary Clinton on Monday of appearing to violate campaign finance laws with her expansive use of a joint fundraising committee set up last year with the national party.
The controversy seemed to further sour relations between the two Democratic hopefuls at a point in the campaign where their patience with one another had already worn extremely thin, as evidenced by their testy debate in Brooklyn this week.
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In a letter to the Democratic National Committee, a lawyer for Sanders said the joint committee, which can accept far larger donations than Clinton’s campaign, appeared to be improperly subsidizing her campaign by paying Clinton staffers with funds from the committee and cited other alleged violations as well.
[Independents may feel the Bern, but they can’t vote in New York’s closed primary]
Later Monday, Clinton’s campaign manager said Sanders’s attacks had “gotten out of hand.”
“As Senator Sanders faces nearly insurmountable odds, he is resorting to baseless accusations of illegal actions and poisoning the well for Democratic candidates up and down the ticket,” said Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager.
Mook also took aim at Sanders’s campaign for sending out a fundraising solicitation highlighting its accusations, a tactic Mook called “shameful.”
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs later brushed off Mook’s comments, saying his statement included “rhetorical smoke” but did not address the underlying issue.
The Sanders letter cited a February report by The Washington Post that detailed the Clinton campaign’s expansive use of a joint fundraising committee it set up last year with the DNC and 32 state party committees.
Wealthy donors can give $356,100 annually to the Hillary Victory Fund, the largest joint fundraising committee of its kind. The contributions are then distributed proportionally between the campaign, the DNC and state parties.
But The Post found that before distributing its proceeds, the victory fund has spent millions on direct mail and online ads seeking small donors to support Clinton’s campaign. The victory fund also sponsors Clinton’s online store, allowing donors who have already given the maximum to her campaign to purchase Hillary lapel pins, caps or car magnets, with their money benefiting the party.
The fund functions as an operation embedded within the Clinton campaign, which has been reimbursed $2.6 million for salaries and overhead. Its treasurer is Elizabeth Jones, the Clinton campaign’s chief operating officer.
In his complaint to the DNC, Sanders counsel Brad C. Deutsch said that it appears that the victory fund is using contributions from “big-dollar” donors to finance activities benefiting Clinton. He said that the fund could be subsidizing Clinton’s prospecting for new donors by finding supporters that her campaign is able to tap again and again.
Deutsch said Sanders’s campaign is concerned that the DNC and state parties are making illegal in-kind contributions to Clinton’s campaign through the committee.
A spokesman for the DNC declined to directly address Sanders's allegations.
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“The DNC offered to engage in the same joint fundraising efforts with all the major presidential candidates early in the cycle and we welcome the efforts of the candidates to help raise money for the DNC and state parties now to ensure we can build out the infrastructure to win in November,” said Mark Paustenbach, the DNC’s national press secretary.
DNC officials noted that expenses incurred by the victory fund that result in donations for Clinton have to be paid by her campaign, so the party is not subsidizing her activities.
Asked why the Sanders campaign had directed its concerns to the DNC rather than the Federal Election Commission, which has jurisdiction over such complaints, Briggs called Monday’s letter “a first step.”
"The first step is to go to the DNC because they are a party to this arrangement," Briggs, the Sanders spokesman, said. "This is the first step, and we'll see what happens."
[h=2]State Department Consents to Depositions Over Clinton Email Server[/h]Granting request for discovery rare in FOIA cases
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BY: Alana Goodman
April 18, 2016 7:10 pm
The U.S. State Department reached an agreement with the watchdog group Judicial Watch on Friday that would allow the organization’s attorneys to depose Hillary Clinton’s top aides about the “creation and operation” of her private email server.
The agreement is the latest legal victory for Judicial Watch, which has been suing the State Department for public records related to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan approved Judicial Watch’s request for discovery last month, a rare move in a Freedom of Information Act case.
Judicial Watch is seeking information on whether Clinton’s email server allowed her and top aides to evade public records laws and whether State Department officials intentionally obstructed efforts to obtain public information.
The watchdog group has asked to depose Clinton’s top advisers, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, State Department official Patrick Kennedy, and other senior officials.
The State Department consented to this in its joint discovery agreement with Judicial Watch on Friday. However, the watchdog group did remove Donald Reid, an official with the department’s security bureau, from its requested witness list.
“The scope of permissible discovery shall be as follows: the creation and operation of clintonemail.com for State Department business,” said the agreement. “[A]s well as the State Department’s approach and practice for processing FOIA requests that potentially implicated former Secretary Clinton’s and Ms. Abedin’s emails and State’s processing of the FOIA request that is the subject of this action.”
Judicial Watch also agreed that the State Department could request up to three business days to review any recorded depositions or transcripts and “if necessary, to seek an order precluding public release, quotation or paraphrase of any inadvertently disclosed classified information,” including information about ongoing FBI probes. The FBI has been investigating whether classified information was improperly transmitted over Clinton’s server.
Judge Sullivan will still have to approve the proposal before it can go forward. According to the agreement, Judicial Watch would have eight weeks after Judge Sullivan’s approval to complete the discovery process, but could request an extension if necessary.
The proposal also specified that Judicial Watch could not seek information outside the scope of its initial discovery request, including “on matters unrelated to whether State conducted an adequate search in response to Plaintiff’s FOIA request.” Judicial Watch’s lawsuit in this case is seeking information related to Huma Abedin’s employment status, although the group will not be able to request that information through the discovery process.
Judicial Watch has now been granted discovery in two public records lawsuits against the State Department. Late last month, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth also agreed to allow “limited discovery,” citing “evidence of government wrong-doing and bad faith.”
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AP
BY: Alana Goodman
April 18, 2016 7:10 pm
The U.S. State Department reached an agreement with the watchdog group Judicial Watch on Friday that would allow the organization’s attorneys to depose Hillary Clinton’s top aides about the “creation and operation” of her private email server.
The agreement is the latest legal victory for Judicial Watch, which has been suing the State Department for public records related to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan approved Judicial Watch’s request for discovery last month, a rare move in a Freedom of Information Act case.
Judicial Watch is seeking information on whether Clinton’s email server allowed her and top aides to evade public records laws and whether State Department officials intentionally obstructed efforts to obtain public information.
The watchdog group has asked to depose Clinton’s top advisers, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, State Department official Patrick Kennedy, and other senior officials.
The State Department consented to this in its joint discovery agreement with Judicial Watch on Friday. However, the watchdog group did remove Donald Reid, an official with the department’s security bureau, from its requested witness list.
“The scope of permissible discovery shall be as follows: the creation and operation of clintonemail.com for State Department business,” said the agreement. “[A]s well as the State Department’s approach and practice for processing FOIA requests that potentially implicated former Secretary Clinton’s and Ms. Abedin’s emails and State’s processing of the FOIA request that is the subject of this action.”
Judicial Watch also agreed that the State Department could request up to three business days to review any recorded depositions or transcripts and “if necessary, to seek an order precluding public release, quotation or paraphrase of any inadvertently disclosed classified information,” including information about ongoing FBI probes. The FBI has been investigating whether classified information was improperly transmitted over Clinton’s server.
Judge Sullivan will still have to approve the proposal before it can go forward. According to the agreement, Judicial Watch would have eight weeks after Judge Sullivan’s approval to complete the discovery process, but could request an extension if necessary.
The proposal also specified that Judicial Watch could not seek information outside the scope of its initial discovery request, including “on matters unrelated to whether State conducted an adequate search in response to Plaintiff’s FOIA request.” Judicial Watch’s lawsuit in this case is seeking information related to Huma Abedin’s employment status, although the group will not be able to request that information through the discovery process.
Judicial Watch has now been granted discovery in two public records lawsuits against the State Department. Late last month, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth also agreed to allow “limited discovery,” citing “evidence of government wrong-doing and bad faith.”
[h=2]Trump says 'phony' Hillary Clinton was lying to black radio hosts with claim that she always carries hot sauce in her purse[/h]
The Democratic presidential front-runner told a Harlem radio show that carries hot sauce with her in her purse at all times. Donald Trump called it 'so phony, and so pandering and so terrible.' One radio DJ told Clinton on Friday that 'people are going to see this and say "okay, she's pandering to black people".' Clinton shot back, half-serious: 'Okay, is it workin'?'
[h=2]Report: State Department Steered $13 Million to Clinton Foundation Donor[/h]SHARE
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BY: Alana Goodman
April 19, 2016 4:18 pm
A prominent Clinton Foundation donor who faced corruption allegations in Bangladesh received $13 million from a State Department-linked U.S. agency during Hillary Clinton’s tenure, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported this week.
Mohammad Yunus, known as the pioneer of charitable microfinancing, reportedly received at least 18 grants, loans, and contracts from USAID, a federal agency that operates under guidance from the State Department, while Clinton was secretary of state.
Yunus contributed between $100,000 and $300,000 to the Clinton Foundation:
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AP
BY: Alana Goodman
April 19, 2016 4:18 pm
A prominent Clinton Foundation donor who faced corruption allegations in Bangladesh received $13 million from a State Department-linked U.S. agency during Hillary Clinton’s tenure, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported this week.
Mohammad Yunus, known as the pioneer of charitable microfinancing, reportedly received at least 18 grants, loans, and contracts from USAID, a federal agency that operates under guidance from the State Department, while Clinton was secretary of state.
Yunus contributed between $100,000 and $300,000 to the Clinton Foundation:
The awards, totaling $13 million, were issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the development arm of the State Department, beginning when Clinton became secretary of state. Another $11 million in federal funds went to organizations allied with Yunus.
When asked to explain the Yunus grants and loans, USAID Spokesman Raphael Cook said the agency didn’t have the “manpower” to respond to questions about the transactions.
According to the Daily Caller, the funding went to several of Yunus’s charities. In 2011, Yunus was removed as head of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, amid accusations of corruption. He was cleared of misappropriating millions in Norwegian charitable funds after a Bangladesh investigation in 2011.When asked to explain the Yunus grants and loans, USAID Spokesman Raphael Cook said the agency didn’t have the “manpower” to respond to questions about the transactions.
[h=1]Trump and Clinton win big in Empire State[/h]
After an acrimonious contest in a state where both candidates have strong personal roots, the former secretary of state is expected to call on Democrats to begin the process of unifying against Republicans, even though Bernie Sanders may continue campaigning until July.
But bitter wrangling over alleged voting irregularities and strict registration rules may fuel anger among Sanders supporters who argue the system favours establishment candidates.
Earlier Sanders had criticised closed New York primary rules that require voters to register their party affiliation up to six months before the election. “Today, three million people in the state of New York who are independents have lost their right to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary. That’s wrong,” said the Vermont senator.
Most polling leading up to Tuesday’s primary showed Clinton comfortably ahead of Sanders in her adopted home state, which elected her to two terms as a US senator and also chose her over Barack Obama in 2008.
After an acrimonious contest in a state where both candidates have strong personal roots, the former secretary of state is expected to call on Democrats to begin the process of unifying against Republicans, even though Bernie Sanders may continue campaigning until July.
But bitter wrangling over alleged voting irregularities and strict registration rules may fuel anger among Sanders supporters who argue the system favours establishment candidates.
Earlier Sanders had criticised closed New York primary rules that require voters to register their party affiliation up to six months before the election. “Today, three million people in the state of New York who are independents have lost their right to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary. That’s wrong,” said the Vermont senator.
Most polling leading up to Tuesday’s primary showed Clinton comfortably ahead of Sanders in her adopted home state, which elected her to two terms as a US senator and also chose her over Barack Obama in 2008.
