How Bill Clinton Gained Personal Wealth From Political Connections

The Hillary Clinton email scandal has largely revolved around potentially inappropriate connections between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation—but a new report reveals that the Clintons may have also increased their personal wealth as a result of political connections forged during Hillary’s time in the State Department. Rosalind Helderman and Michelle Ye Hee Lee of The Washington Post write:

The guest list for a private State Department dinner on higher-education policy was taking shape when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered a suggestion.

In addition to recommending invitations for leaders from a community college and a church-funded institution, Clinton wanted a representative from a for-profit college company called Laureate International Universities, which, she explained in an email to her chief of staff that was released last year, was “the fastest growing college network in the world.”

There was another reason Clinton favored setting a seat aside for Laureate at the August 2009 event: The company was started by a businessman, Doug Becker, “who Bill likes a lot,” the secretary wrote, referring to her husband, the former president.

Nine months later, Laureate signed Bill Clinton to a lucrative deal as a consultant and “honorary chancellor,” paying him $17.6 million over five years until the contract ended in 2015 as Hillary Clinton launched her campaign for president.

The Clintons’ tax returns, released by Hillary Clinton earlier this year, reveal the details of various forms of compensation. “The Laureate arrangement illustrates the extent to which the Clintons mixed their charitable work with their private and political lives,” the authors write. “Many of those who paid Bill Clinton to consult or speak were also foundation donors and, in some cases, supporters of political campaigns for one or both Clintons.”

Read the entire piece here.

—Posted by Emma Niles

Related Entries

• September 6, 2016 How Bill Clinton Gained Personal Wealth From Political Connections
• September 6, 2016 A Message to Working People From a Former Labor Secretary