Bill Clinton will quit the board of his charitable foundation but not disband it if Hillary Clinton wins the US presidency, he said on Monday, as Republicans pressed allegations of a conflict of interest.
The announcement came as newly disclosed emails revealed how Huma Abedin coordinated a meeting for a Bahraini prince with officials at the Clinton Foundation during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
Amid intensifying political controversy, Bill Clinton told foundation staff last week that it will stop accepting foreign or corporate donations in the event of his wife reaching the White House. In a blogpost on Monday, he put flesh on the bones.
He defended the foundation’s work, saying it had “improved millions of lives around the world”, for example, by providing HIV/Aids drugs at vastly reduced cost, but admitted it would need to change if his wife wins.
“If Hillary is elected president, the foundation’s work, funding, global reach, and my role in it will present questions that must be resolved in a way that keeps the good work going while eliminating legitimate concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Over the last several months, members of the foundation’s senior leadership, Chelsea, and I have evaluated how the foundation should operate if Hillary is elected,” the 70-year-old former president wrote.
In the event of a Clinton victory in November, he added, the foundation will accept contributions only from US citizens, permanent residents and US-based independent foundations, whose names will be made public. Many of its international activities will be transferred to other organisations and its official name will change from the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation to the Clinton Foundation.
Bill Clinton, who set up the foundation at the end of his presidency 15 years ago, wrote: “While I will continue to support the work of the foundation, I will step down from the board and will no longer raise funds for it.”
Next month’s Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York will be the last, he added, irrespective of the election result. But he rejected growing calls, not only from Trump, that the foundation should close down if his wife prevails. “While my role in that work will change, the work itself should continue because so many people are committed to it and so many more are relying on it.”
The statement, which was emailed to about half a million supporters, came hours after Trump stepped up his attacks on the foundation. “Hillary Clinton is the defender of the corrupt and rigged status quo,” the Republican nominee said.
“It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history. What they were doing during Crooked Hillary’s time as secretary of state was wrong then and it is wrong now. It must be shut down immediately.”
While Trump has donated to the foundation previously, he has accused Hillary Clinton of creating a “pay-for-play” scheme whereby donors to the foundation got preferential treatment at the state department.
He was given fresh ammunition on Monday when a batch of 20 emails released by the conservative group Judicial Watch showed how the foundation sought access to Clinton on donors’ behalf.
On 23 June 2009, for example, Doug Band, a senior executive at the foundation, wrote to Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Abedin. Band wanted to arrange for the crown prince of Bahrain, a US ally, to meet the secretary of state during a visit to Washington. “Good friend of ours,” Band wrote to Abedin.
After initial doubts over scheduling, Abedin confirmed that Clinton would meet Crown Prince Salman, who in 2005 had made a $32m commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative. Copies of Clinton’s calendar obtained by the Associated Press confirm that the meeting took place in her state department office on 26 June 2009.
Another exchange shows Band requesting that Clinton help a member of British football club Wolverhampton Wanderers – presumably a player, though no name is given – who was struggling to get a US visa to visit Las Vegas for a “celebration break” because of a “criminal charge”. This was at the behest of Hollywood and sports executive Casey Wasserman, who had donated between $5m and $10m to the Clinton Foundation.
But Clinton’s office did not comply and no visa was obtained. Abedin said it “makes me nervous to get involved but I’ll ask”. Band replied: “Then don’t.”
The emails also show that Clinton met SlimFast founder Daniel Abraham, founder of the Center for Middle East Peace and another Clinton Foundation donor, at a day’s notice in May 2009. According to the Associated Press, the calendars show the meeting was one of eight between Abraham and Clinton while she was secretary, the most of any foundation donor.
On Monday the state department rejected any allegations of undue influence. Deputy spokesman Mark Toner said: “I would just once again emphasise that there wasn’t a single channel for access to the secretary of state than secretary of state Clinton.
“And for senior aides working at the department at the time to have connections with the Clinton Foundation – which by the way was working on, for example, Haiti relief, post-earthquake, pretty significant roles in that, in fact – only speaks to the fact that these were important people who had reason to convey information to the secretary. There was nothing that we have seen that implied any kind of untoward relationship.”
The Clinton campaign rejected the criticism and took a swipe at Judicial Watch. Spokesman Josh Schwerin said: “Once again this rightwing organisation that has been going after the Clintons since the 1990s is distorting facts to make utterly false attacks. No matter how this group tries to mischaracterise these documents, the fact remains that Hillary Clinton never took action as secretary of state because of donations to the Clinton Foundation.”
Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine, speaking at the ironworkers’ annual convention in Las Vegas, said: “All the donors to the foundation have been disclosed. And the foundation has said, ‘We’ll go further. We’ll restructure itself completely if Hillary Clinton is elected president.’ That’s a pledge.
“Donald Trump, on the other hand, has told us nothing about how he’ll deal with the conflicts posed by his business dealings, like the money his company owes to the Bank of China. And I have this to say to Donald Trump, because these ties affect your net worth: before you go about attacking a charity, why don’t you come clean about your own business dealings and tell the American people who you are in debt to?”
