Released E-mails show Clinton foundation received $1m pledge from Qatar while serving as Sec. of State

Released E-mails show Clinton foundation received $1m pledge from Qatar while serving as Sec. of State

Hacked emails have revealed Bill and Hillary Clinton received $1m  from Qatar for the Clinton Foundation while she was still in office as  Secretary of State despite Hillary publicly promising the U.S.  government that while she served as Secretary of state, the foundation  would not accept new funding from foreign governments without seeking  clearance from the State Department's ethics office.

The  hacked email is among thousands published over the last week by the  pro-transparency group Wikileaks from the account of John Podesta, the  chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and in the  email from 2012, a senior official from the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea  Clinton Foundation informed colleagues that a planned donation by  Qatar's government to mark Bill Clinton's birthday came up in a meeting  he had with Qatar's ambassador in Washington.

In  the email, the ambassador said that he asked "to see WJC 'for five  minutes' in NYC, to present $1 million check that Qatar promised for  WJC's birthday in 2011," Amitabh Desai, the foundation official, writes  in his email, using the former U.S. president's initials.

But  the email doesn't show if the money was sent as a birthday gift to Bill  Clinton or the family's foundation although the family's foundation's  website lists the State of Qatar as having given that figure. 

Meanwhile,  the U.S State Department in a statement said it cannot cite any  instances of its ethics officials reviewing or approving new donations  from foreign governments to the foundation while Clinton served as the  country's top diplomat from 2009 until 2013.

"You  would need to ask the Foundation whether there were additional matters  that it should have submitted for State Department review," the  department said in a statement..

Bill  Clinton announced in August that, if Hillary won the presidency, the  foundation would cease to accept money from foreign or corporate bodies  and Bill would resign from the board. Hillary Clinton has not served on  the board since April 2015.

Source: CNN / Fox News

This post first appeared on Linda Ikeji's Blog. Read the original story here.

Source: Released E-mails show Clinton foundation received $1m pledge from Qatar while serving as Sec. of State