While Hillary Clinton continues to hide from the media after the rocky launch of her grassroots-style presidential campaign, the Donorgate scandal continued to gain steam this week with new revelations.
Reports from Bloomberg Politics indicate that the Clinton foundation received more than $2 million dollars from a board member by the name of Frank Giustra. Bill Clinton helped this same Giustra secure a major mining deal while Hillary was serving as Secretary of State.
The donation was comprised of smaller donors totaling around one thousand individuals. These donors were from the Clinton Giustra Enterprise (CGEP), a Canada-based subsidiary of the Clinton Foundation. The money trail went directly into the Clinton operation.
Aside from the obvious appearance of impropriety, the major issue with regards to the donations was the agreement between the White House and Hillary. The agreement included CGEP and indicated that all donors would be reported annually. The donors were never disclosed, thus breaking the agreement.
Giustra assured that the foundation was “not trying to hide anything” and explained that Canadian law barred the release of private donors. However, Canadian tax law experts dismiss this claim, saying “nothing would preclude them” from revealing donor names.
In a recent interview former Sen. Dick Lugar (D-IN), who served as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Hillary was Secretary of State, reported that the committee warned her of taking donations while she was serving at the State Department because it “made for [a] misunderstanding”.
