WikiLeaks Release Reveals Hillary Clinton's Connection to Wall Street

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Hillary Clinton claims she is against big corporations and the greed of Wall Street.  However, it turns out that she not only does not have a problem with them, she’s a part of the big corporation/Wall Street mess of corruption. . . and she always has been.  She’s a liar and her connections to Wall Street are complex.  And, it turns out, her connections are more than political fundraising and paid public speaking appearances.  Her Clinton Foundation and her son-in-law’s hedge fund are also intertwined into Wall Street.

She got $21 million for her 2008 presidential campaign from Wall Street giants, and securities and investment workers were her third largest source of campaign donations behind lawyers and retirees. Citigroup employees donated $765,192.  Goldman Sachs employees donated $682,990. DLA Piper, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase & Co also put in plenty of money.

Wall Street has also played a role in helping the Clintons rebuild their personal finances. While the Clintons at one time claimed to be broke, from 2000 to 2008 the Clinton pair jointly earned $109 million, much of it in the form of speaking fees, where many of the payers were Wall Street firms.

Barclays Capital, Citi Foundation and Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund have all given the Clinton’s foundation between $1 million and $5 million. Bank of America Foundation, Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc., McKinsey & Company and UBS Wealth Management USA have given between $500,000 and $1 million. Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank AG, Deutsche Bank Americas, Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Global Impact Funding Trust Inc. have all given between $251,000 and $500,000.

Chelsea Clinton’s husband, Goldman Sachs alum Marc Mezvinsky, is a founding partner in Eaglevale Partners LP, a $400 million hedge fund launched in 2011. A New York Times report found that “tens of millions of dollars raised by Eaglevale can be attributed to investors with some relationship or link to the Clintons.”

Among those investors are hedge fund managers Marc Lasry and James Leitner; an overseas money management firm connected to the Rothschild family; and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein. Rock Creek Group, a Washington-based investment advisory firm that briefly sublet office space to Mrs. Clinton after she stepped down as Secretary of State, placed $13 million from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and another public pension fund with Eaglevale in late 2011 and early 2012, according to the Times. The pension funds have subsequently withdrawn their investments; CalPERS left as it moved money away from hedge funds.

– Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary