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Stoddard: Clouds loom for Clinton

Bernie Sanders

By A.B. Stoddard – 05/25/16 05:45 PM EDT

Things could be worse for Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy, perhaps an indictment pending in her email scandal, but these are still awful days in her campaign. While there are many threats to her prospects she cannot control, like an FBI investigation, she could surely butter up Bernie Sanders and stop bleeding support from his impassioned supporters. But instead, Clinton is making things worse.

Even though many Democrats are growing increasingly aggravated by Sanders overstaying his welcome in the primary contest, Clinton should leave it to others to throw salt in the wound. Declining a final debate with the Vermont senator and declaring herself the presumptive nominee on CNN last week has only made Sanders more defiant and could further injure Clinton’s own wounded campaign against a surging Donald Trump, who stands to win over some disgruntled Sanders voters on the issue of trade.

As Clinton urges Sanders to wrap it up and “do his part” to unite the party the way she did with thenBarack Obama in 2008, he is requesting a recount in Kentucky over a single delegate, planning floor votes over rule changes at what he predicts will be a “messy” convention in July and insists he is “invigorating” the party.

Sure he is losing staff and his money’s drying up, but it’s full speed ahead to try and win California on June 7 and undermine the former first lady despite knowing her delegate lead is “insurmountable,” as she has reminded him. Unity isn’t top of mind for Sanders these days. As he railed against the presumptive nominee for insulting voters from the nation’s largest state by refusing to debate, Sanders sniffed, he was “disappointed, although not surprised.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/ab-stoddard/281283-stoddard-clouds-loom-for-clinton

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Clinton Controversies Drag On as Next Phase of Campaign Begins

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Questions on Clinton foundation, e-mails, Benghazi committee to linger through summer.

Hillary Clinton is facing a convergence of controversies and questions, old and new, that are likely to drag through the Democratic nominating convention into the general election and offer Republicans a ready-made framework for attacks.

A Wall Street Journal report this week is bringing renewed scrutiny of the Clinton Global Initiative, founded by her husband, and raising questions about whether Clinton would be able to disengage from the tangled personal and business ties of former President Bill Clinton and the family’s foundation. A Republican-led House committee is aiming to release its report on the 2012 attack  on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in July, as both party conventions are getting underway. The FBI, meanwhile, is working to conclude an investigation into her use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state.

“This kind of stuff isn’t going away any time soon, and I hope the campaign is going to move aggressively to deal with it in the most transparent way possible,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former top communications adviser to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-05-13/clinton-enters-next-phase-of-campaign-dragging-controversies-with-her

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The FBI stalks Hillary while Bill Clinton trolls Obama

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The Clintons may sense a breakdown

By Monica Crowley – The Washington Times – Updated: 9:17 a.m. on Thursday, March 31, 2016

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Do Bill and Hillary Clinton sense a breakdown in whatever deal they may have struck with President Obama to protect her presidential ambitions? Is whatever negotiation they may have been conducting over her email server problem and any inside information she may have on him now imploding? Or have the Clintons “won” the negotiation with Mr. Obama, freeing them to hit him publicly to get her elected?

Something has happened, which has led Mr. Clinton to openly slam Mr. Obama: ” If you believe we’ve finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us ” he said recently. A few days later, Chelsea Clinton launched a broadside on Obamacare’s costs. A classic Clintonian one-two punch, coming just days before a report that the FBI is seeking interviews with Mrs. Clinton’s top aides, and likely Mrs. Clinton herself. Most investigations interview the target last.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/30/monica-crowley-the-clintons-sense-a-breakdown/

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The chaos scenario for Democrats what Happens if Hillary is Forced to drop out of the presidential race

Joe Biden

By Ben Kamisar

It’s the scenario that Republicans dream of and Democrats believe is all but impossible: Hillary Clinton being forced to drop out of the presidential race due to criminal charges over her email server.

Any bombshell findings in the FBI’s investigation of Clinton could plunge the Democratic race into chaos.

Bernie Sanders could stand to gain. As the only other candidate in the Democratic race, the party could quickly coalesce around him in an effort to halt the bedlam. But that’s far from a sure thing, with many in the party fearful he would be a weak general election candidate.

Democrats insist there’s virtually no chance that Clinton will be indicted over her server. The candidate has said repeatedly that no laws were broken, and that classified information was never sent over the server. Asked about an indictment at the last Democratic debate, Clinton responded: “That’s not going to happen.”

In the event that Clinton stepped aside after winning the nomination at the convention, the Democratic National Committee could decide on the replacement on its own.

If an indictment came before the convention, the path would be more difficult.

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/273626-the-chaos-scenario-for-democrats

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Clinton Scandals Overshadow Gottheimer bid to Unseat Congressmen Scott Garrett

Joshua S

March 13,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Joshua S. Gottheimer is a lawyer, speechwriter, and public policy adviser. He has been active within the Democratic Party as a speechwriter for Bill Clinton and an advisor for the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton. He is currently running for the United States House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 5th congressional district.

The New York Times called Gottheimer a “Protégé of Clintons”  saying , “few can claim as direct a connection to the former secretary of state as Mr. Gottheimer, who began his career as a young speechwriter in the Clinton White House and advised Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign. Mr. Clinton and Chelsea Clinton have already quietly appeared at a Manhattan fund-raiser in late October, where Ms. Clinton introduced Mr. Gottheimer as something of a family member.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/26/nyregion/protege-of-hillary-and-bill-clintons-targets-us-congressional-seat.html

On February 8th the FBI disclosed in a federal court filing, that it is looking into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. On March 2nd the Justice Department granted immunity to a former State Department staffer, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, according to a senior law enforcement official.

While the Ridgewood blog has already reported that Gottheimer is being funded by Wall Street interests looking to expand the current “too big to fail” policies and make Wall Street and Corporate bailouts even more frequent something Garret is vehemently opposed too. The NYT again reported ,”Mr. Gottheimer reported raising around $1 million for his campaign through September. A review of his filings found that about one dollar in six came directly from fellow alumni of the Clinton White House and campaigns — many of whom are scattered across powerful companies like Time Warner Inc., Bloomberg L.P. and Goldman Sachs — or from major donors and employees of consulting firms tied closely to the Clintons. “https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/26/nyregion/protege-of-hillary-and-bill-clintons-targets-us-congressional-seat.html

And all this before any mention of the Clinton foundation ,which the National Review called an , ” elaborate slush fund, includes numerous donors and even one-time board members with dodgy backgrounds, shady dealings, and even criminal convictions that should repel rather than lure a once and perhaps future president of the United States. Peter Schweizer’s meticulously researched new best-seller Clinton Cash” (complete with 635 endnotes) delineates this ultimate power couple’s sordid circle. https://www.nationalreview.com/article/419791/clinton-foundation-reeks-crooks-thieves-and-hoods-deroy-murdock

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Hillary Clinton’s $13M fail as Secretary of State

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By Post Editorial Board

January 1, 2016 | 11:21pm

It turns out that Bill Clinton raked in millions from entities with matters before Hillary Clinton’s State Department. Oh, and the Clinton Foundation collected millions more from the same bunch.

In total, The Wall Street Journal reports, two dozen companies and groups, plus the Abu Dhabi government, gave Bill more than $8 million for speeches, even as they were hoping for favorable treatment from Hillary’s bureaucracy. And 15 of them also gave at least $5 million total to the foundation.

At her confirmation hearing, questioners raised the issue of her hubby’s global business. Hillary vowed to take “extraordinary steps . . . to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

Count 13 million record fails for those “extraordinary steps.”

Hillary’s solemn promise recalls a line from George R.R. Martin: “Words are wind.” Heck, it must be the House Clinton slogan.

The issue first arose thanks to Peter Schweizer’s book, “Clinton Cash.”

“The really troubling thing about Bill’s speeches is the apparent correlation between his fees and Hillary’s decisions during her tenure as secretary of state,” he wrote.

“The timing of the payments, the much-higher-than-average size of some of them, and the subsequent actions taken by Hillary raise serious questions about just what those who underwrote these exorbitant fees were actually paying for.”

Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon says “no evidence exists” connecting State Department actions under Hillary to Bill’s lucrative speeches.

 

 

https://nypost.com/2016/01/01/hillary-clintons-13m-fail-as-secretary-of-state/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow

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Television News Network Lobbyists Are Fundraising for Hillary Clinton

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Oct. 29 2015,
Lee Fang

Over the last two presidential debates, both Democratic and Republican candidates have asserted that the television news media is biased and has done a poor job informing voters of the most pressing issues in the election.

And while their focus is on things like the type of questions asked by debate moderators, they are overlooking much clearer signs of potential conflicts of interest. Fundraising disclosures released this month and in July reveal that lobbyists for media companies are raising big money for establishment presidential candidates, particularly Hillary Clinton.

The giant media companies that shape much of the coverage of the presidential campaign have a vested stake in the outcome. From campaign finance laws that govern how money is spent on advertising to the regulators who oversee consolidation rules, the media industry has a distinct policy agenda, and with it, a political team to influence the result.

The top fundraisers for Clinton include lobbyists who serve the parent companies of CNN and MSNBC.

The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade group that represents the television station industry, has lobbyists who are fundraising for both Clinton and Republican candidate Marco Rubio.

Presidential campaigns are obligated by law to send the Federal Election Commission a list of lobbyists who serve as “bundlers,” collecting hundreds of individual checks on behalf of a candidate’s campaign.

CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, is represented on Capitol Hill by SteveElmendorf, an adviser to Clinton during her 2008 campaign, who is also known as “one of Washington’s top lobbyists.” He’s lobbied on a number of issues important for media companies like CNN, including direct-to-consumer advertising policy.

Elmendorf, according to disclosures, has raised at least $141,815 for Clinton’s 2016 bid for the presidency.

Comcast, the parent company of NBC Universal, which includes cable networks NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC, has a number of lobbyists on retainer who are working to raise cash for the Clinton campaign, including Justin Gray, Alfred Mottur, Ingrid Duran and Catherine Pino.

Much of the $5 billion expected to be spent over the course of the 2016 presidential election cycle will be on cable and network news advertisements. The election-related spending bonanza is singularly boosting the profit margins of many media companies, as we’ve reported.

“Super PACs may be bad for America, but they’re very good for CBS,” LesMoonves, president and chief executive of CBS, memorably said.

 

https://theintercept.com/2015/10/29/media-fundraisers-presidential/

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Judicial Watch: Hillary Clinton is not above the law

hillary-clinton-what-difference-does-it-make

July 28,2015

the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Judicial Watch continues to press Clinton on Various actions taken at the State Department as well as her involvement with the Clinton Foundation .But Hillary Clinton has a demonstrated record of showing contempt for the rule of law.
She refused to tell the truth about the deadly Benghazi terrorist attack that took place on her watch as Secretary of State
She violated the law and avoided accountability by using secret email accounts as Secretary of State
She abused her public office to funnel money to personal accounts – much of which is now sloshing around her vanity “charity” that could be renamed “The Clinton Corruption Foundation.”This is all unacceptable.

In this country our leaders are bound by the rule of law. She must be held accountable for her actions.

Sign the petition now to demand that Hillary Clinton answer for her corruption!

https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/poll/demand-answers/?source=59

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Clinton Foundation reveals up to $26 million in additional payments

hillary-clinton-what-difference-does-it-make

By Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger May 21 at 9:53 PM

The Clinton Foundation reported Thursday that it has received as much as $26.4 million in previously undisclosed payments from major corporations, universities, foreign sources and other groups.

The disclosure came as the foundation faced questions over whether it fully complied with a 2008 ethics agreement to reveal its donors and whether any of its funding sources present conflicts of interest for Hillary Rodham Clinton as she begins her presidential campaign.

The money was paid as fees for speeches by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. Foundation officials said the funds were tallied internally as “revenue” rather than donations, which is why they had not been included in the public listings of its contributors published as part of the 2008 agreement.

According to the new information, the Clintons have delivered 97 speeches to benefit the charity since 2002. Colleges and universities sponsored more than two dozen of these speeches, along with U.S. and overseas corporations and at least one foreign government, Thailand.

The payments were disclosed late Thursday on the organization’s Web site, with speech payments listed in ranges rather than specific amounts. In total, the payments ranged between $12 million and $26.4 million.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-foundation-reveals-up-to-26million-in-additional-payments/2015/05/21/e49da740-0009-11e5-833c-a2de05b6b2a4_story.html

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ABC’s ‘secret’ $105M gamble on Stephanopoulos

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By Emily Smith

May 18, 2015 | 9:47pm

ABC has plenty of reasons to be freaking out over the George Stephanopoulos scandal — 105 million, to be exact.

The “Good Morning America” and “This Week” anchor renewed his contract last year for $105 million, TV industry sources told The Post Monday.

The seven-year deal — which dwarfs the five-year, $50 million contract scored by since-suspended NBC rivalBrian Williams — was supposed to keep Stephanopoulos in front of ABC’s cameras through 2021.

But now his credibility, and future, have been called into question since he admitted Friday that he haddonated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation since 2011, just as the presidential race gears up with Hillary Rodham Clinton the leading Democrat.

In a mea culpa delivered Sunday on “This Week,” Stephanopoulos, who was also a top aide in President Bill Clinton’s White House, said the gifts “were a matter of public record, but I should have made additional disclosures on air when we covered the foundation.”

It was his second on-air apology in less than a week.

Sources have said ABC News execs were blindsided by Stephanopoulos’ largesse, and one TV insider noted Monday that “ABC really has all their money on Stephanopoulos.”

https://pagesix.com/2015/05/18/george-stephanopoulos-future-and-105m-contract-in-danger/

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Clinton Friend’s Memos on Libya Draw Scrutiny to Politics and Business

White House Aide Sidney Blumenthal talks to report

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTMAY 18, 2015

When the Clintons last occupied the White House, Sidney Blumenthal cast himself in varied roles: speechwriter, in-house intellectual and press corps whisperer. Republicans added another, accusing Mr. Blumenthal of spreading gossip to discredit Republican investigators, and forced him to testify during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.

Now, as Hillary Rodham Clinton embarks on her second presidential bid, Mr. Blumenthal’s service to the Clintons is again under the spotlight. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican who is leading the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plans to subpoena Mr. Blumenthal, 66, for a private transcribed interview.

Mr. Gowdy’s chief interest, according to people briefed on the inquiry, is a series of memos that Mr. Blumenthal — who was not an employee of the State Department — wrote to Mrs. Clinton about events unfolding in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. According to emails obtained by The New York Times, Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond. Mrs. Clinton continued to pass around his memos even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable.

But an examination by The Times suggests that Mr. Blumenthal’s involvement was more wide-ranging and more complicated than previously known, embodying the blurry lines between business, politics and philanthropy that have enriched and vexed the Clintons and their inner circle for years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/us/politics/clinton-friends-libya-role-blurs-lines-of-politics-and-business.html

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Unraveling: Liberal Common Cause demands Clinton Foundation, Hillary audit

hillary-clinton-what-difference-does-it-make

BY PAUL BEDARD | APRIL 24, 2015 | 12:29 PM

The financial issues plaguing Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign have become too much even for liberal groups, and now Common Cause is calling for an independent audit of donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Amid suggestions that foreign governments donated to the foundation in hopes of getting special treatment from President Obama’s State Department when Clinton was his top diplomat, the group on Friday said a “thorough review” is needed.

“Six years ago, at Mrs. Clinton’s confirmation hearing for her appointment as secretary of state, then-Sen. Dick Lugar observed that ‘that foreign governments and entities may perceive the Clinton Foundation as a means to gain favor with the secretary of state.’ He was right, and his remarks remain relevant today as Mrs. Clinton seeks the presidency,” said Common Cause President Miles Rapoport.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/unraveling-liberal-common-cause-demands-clinton-foundation-hillary-audit/article/2563565

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Emails May Be a Key to Addressing ‘Pay-to-Play’ Whispers at Clinton Foundation

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Emails May Be a Key to Addressing ‘Pay-to-Play’ Whispers at Clinton Foundation

There are not two Clinton controversies. There is one big, hairy deal.
By Ron Fournier

March 8, 2015 “Follow the money.” That apocryphal phrase, attributed to Watergate whistle-blower “Deep Throat,” explains why the biggest threat to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential dreams is not her emails. It’s her family foundation. That’s where the money is: corporate money, foreign money, gobs of money sloshing around a vanity charity that could be renamed “Clinton Conflicts of Interest Foundation.”

What about the emails? Hillary Clinton’s secret communications cache is a bombshell deserving of full disclosure because of her assault on government transparency and electronic security. But its greatest relevancy is what the emails might reveal about any nexus between Clinton’s work at State and donations to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation from U.S. corporations and foreign nations.

https://www.nationaljournal.com/twenty-sixteen/emails-may-be-a-key-to-addressing-pay-to-play-whispers-at-clinton-foundation-20150308