Facing questions over foreign donations, Hillary Clinton starts cutting ties to Bill’s foundation

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Meeting in Chicago. (Photo: Scott Eisen/AP)

Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation moved swiftly Friday to begin cutting ties as she prepares to announce her candidacy for president, amid mounting criticism over millions of dollars in foreign donations that have poured into the foundation’s coffers.

As late as this week, Hillary Clinton was being touted on the foundation’s website as the “host”— along with former president Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton — of a Clinton Global Initiative event in Marrakech, Morocco, next month that is being funded with donations from a Moroccan oil and gas conglomerate and a government-owned phosphate mining firm that has been accused of extracting minerals in internationally disputed territory. (The Clinton Global Initiative is an arm of the foundation.)

But by Friday afternoon, Hillary Clinton was removed on the website as the host of that event. It is one of a number of steps that the foundation is expected to take in coming days to reduce Clinton’s ties to the foundation and address the controversy over donations by foreigners while she is preparing to run for president.

The controversy heated up late Friday when two Republican congressmen called on the foundation to return a million-dollar contribution from OCP, the Moroccan-government-owned mining firm that is one of the sponsors of the upcoming event, which is focused on social and economic issues in Africa and the Middle East. The company has been sharply criticized by human rights groups and European wealth funds for its operations in Western Sahara.

“Out of respect for internationally recognized human rights norms, the Clinton Global Initiative should discontinue its coordination with OCP and return any accepted money from the enterprise, wrote Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R-Pennsylvania) and Christopher Smith (R-New Jersey). A U.S. lawyer for OCP did not immediately return calls asking for a response. A spokesman for the foundation declined to comment.

Exactly what new policies the foundation will adopt is uncertain, but at a minimum it is expected to reinstate limits on the acceptance of foreign donations that was in effect while Clinton served as secretary of state. A spokesman said as much in a statement to Yahoo News this week. “Should Secretary Clinton declare for office, we will continue to ensure the Foundation’s policies and practices regarding support from international partners are appropriate, just as we did when she served as Secretary of State,” said Craig Minassian, chief communications officer for the foundation.

But it’s not certain whether the foundation will take additional steps, or whether this will be enough to satisfy its critics. “The Clinton Foundation has already gotten a ton of foreign money — they’re not talking about giving any of it back,” said Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota. “What about the money that’s already in transit? What about the money that’s already been committed? Where is the hard line? This is a story that will continue to give.”

The issue has special resonance because, while campaign finance laws have been notably weakened in recent years, the prohibition on foreign funds is one of the few bright lines left. While the foundation is a separate charitable institution, Hillary Clinton’s prominent role has seemed at times to blur the distinction between politics and philanthropy. She still serves as a director of the foundation, and it continues to bear her name. (It is formally known as the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.)

As one example, when Yahoo News posed questions to the foundation this week about the Morocco event, Mrs. Clinton’s personal spokesman — who has been fielding questions from reporters about her campaign plans — was copied on all responses.

Foundation spokesman Minassian, in his responses this week, said the organization “has a record of transparency that goes above what is required of U.S. charities. This includes the voluntary disclosure of contributions on the Foundation’s website.”

But those disclosures — which are only posted annually and report donations in broad categories, not in specific amounts — have already fueled much of the controversy. As first reported in February by the Wall Street Journal, the foundation had dropped its earlier self-imposed limit on foreign money in 2013, resulting in a flood of fresh contributions from Saudi Arabia (which has given the foundation a total of between $10 million and $25 million) as well as the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Australia, Germany and a Canadian government agency promoting the pipeline.

While sources say the Clinton Foundation will likely announce additional measures in coming days to address the controversy, it is still unknown whether Hillary Clinton will step down as a director of the foundation or whether the foundation will drop her name from its title. Even though Mrs. Clinton’s name was removed from the Morocco event, she was still listed Friday as the host of a Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in Denver, Colorado, scheduled for June 8-10.

(Cover tile illustration by Yahoo News, photos: Johnny Louis/Getty, Getty)