Chelsea Clinton defends family’s foundation
Chelsea Clinton on Thursday defended the Clinton Foundation amid allegations that it accepted donations from foreign governments in return for favors.
The daughter of Hillary and Bill Clinton maintained that the philanthropic foundation would push to be even more transparent despite already disclosing donors on a regular basis.
{mosads}“I very much believe that that’s the right policy, that we’ll be even more transparent,” said Chelsea Clinton, the foundation’s vice chairwoman.
She also said the organization would not take any new funding from foreign governments, “but that the work will continue as it is.
Clinton’s was responding Thursday during a panel discussion in New York after new questions were raised scrutinizing donations to the foundation.
The New York Times and other news outlets reported Thursday that the organization took in millions of dollars in donations around the time a Canadian company amassed uranium mines in the United States and was eventually acquired by a Russian nuclear agency.
Bill Clinton was reportedly involved in talks that kicked off discussions about the Russian acquisition. And the State Department under Hillary Clinton’s leadership was involved in signing off on the deal, because it involved U.S. uranium deposits, considered a strategic asset.
Following public scrutiny over its acceptance of foreign funds prior to Hillary Clinton launching her presidential campaign, the Clinton Foundation limited donations it would accept to six nations: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom; it pointedly left out nations like Saudi Arabia.
Still, potentially any government could donate to the Clinton family’s healthcare initiatives.
Many of the most recent allegations involving the foreign donations, which Clinton allies have brushed off, stem from the forthcoming book Clinton Cash by right-leaning author Peter Schweizer, who has said he is also looking into the finances of another likely 2016 candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R).