Why The IRS Is Probing The Clinton Foundation

by Tyler Durden

Jul 31, 2016 7:50 PM

"Clinton Cash" author, Peter Schweizer, recently took to the airwaves to explain why the IRS investigation of the Clinton Foundation should be a "big deal" (also see Clinton Cash: "Devastating" Documentary Reveals How Clintons Went From "Dead Broke" To Mega Wealthy") even though he expressed some "skepticism" over the ability of Obama's IRS to run an impartial investigation.  As we we've reported (see "IRS Launches Investigation Of Clinton Foundation"), the IRS recently launched an investigation of the Clinton Foundation after receiving a letter signed by 64 Republicans of the House of Representative which described the Clinton Foundation as a “lawless ‘pay-to-play’ enterprise that has been operating under a cloak of philanthropy for years.”

Somehow we, too, are doubtful that the IRS will lead this investigation with the same kind of vigor they displayed when looking into local Tea Party organizations and religious charities during the last election cycle.

When asked why the IRS should be concerned about the Clinton Foundation, Mr. Schweizer explained:

"The big deal is that...there are international anti-bribery standards that say bribing a public official can mean giving them money, giving their family money, or giving their charity money.  Just because it's a charity doesn't mean that it's not important or not interesting...it constitutes bribery every bit as much as if somebody's putting money in somebody's pocket for a benefit."

Mr. Schweizer continued by calling into question why foreign governments and wealthy foreign individuals, many from the middle east, would contribute money to the Clinton Foundation given the limited scope of their actual charitable outreach:

"When you look at the people who are giving large sums of money overseas they are people who have histories of corruption or being involved in bribery scandals."

We're certain Mr. Schweizer is "overreacting".  After all we're pretty sure the State of Kuwait, Friends of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, The Government of Brunei Darussalam and The Sultanate of Oman, all Clinton Foundation contributors (see full list below), are eagerly involved in the Clinton Foundation's project entitled "No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project" whose stated goal is building an "evidence-based case to chart the path forward for the full participation of girls and women in the 21st century."

A full list of entities/individuals that have made bribes contributions in excess of $1mm to the Clinton Foundation over the years can be found below (click for a larger image):

Finally, when asked why the Obama administration would allow the Clinton Foundation to continue to solicit cash from foreign governments even as she served as Secretary of State, Mr. Schweizer noted that, in fact, Obama conditioned his appointment of Clinton to Secretary of State on her agreement to "disclose all donors"...a condition which Clinton promptly ignored. 

"We know now that there at least 1,100  contributions from foreign sources they still haven't disclosed."

In light of the IRS investigation, we also decided to take a quick look at the Clinton Foundation financials (full reports can be found here). To our "surprise," we discovered that, in fact, only 13.6% of the $248 million of expenditures made by the Foundation in 2014 were for "direct program expenditures" while the remainder went to salaries and amorphous expense buckets like "Professional and Consulting" and "Meetings and Training."  We're very hopeful that this is the type of "efficiency" that Hillary can bring to the various federal organizations.  After all, spending 13.6 cents of every dollar on actual stated objectives would be a huge improvement for many federal entities.



Full article