Cites donor transparency
The Clinton Foundation says its disclosure of foreign donations is “stronger than ever.” Acting CEO Pally says the foundation will only accept donations from “a handful of governments.”
When Hillary Clinton was appointed Secretary of State, we took unprecedented steps to avoid potential conflicts of interest by going above and beyond what is required of any philanthropy and instituted voluntary annual disclosure of all donors on our website.
Pally also pushes back at specific criticism of donations linked to Giustra and a charity he established. Pally stresses that the charity is independent, and that Giustra established it in Canada so that Canadians could receive a tax credit for their donations to support the Clinton Foundation.
But as it is a distinct Canadian organization, separate from the Clinton Foundation, its individual donors are not listed on the site. This is hardly an effort on our part to avoid transparency — unlike in the U.S., under Canadian law, all charities are prohibited from disclosing individual donors without prior permission from each donor.
Pally admits mistakes
In response to charges of conflict of interest in Schweizer’s forthcoming book Clinton Cash, the Clinton Foundation admits that it made “mistakes” as the philanthropy grew but maintains that it did not intentionally do anything wrong.
Yes, we made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them, and have taken steps to ensure they don’t happen in the future.
Schweizer says that he did not have “direct evidence” of ethical misconduct, but says the pattern he uncovered should raise eyebrows and trigger an investigation.