Clinton's charity confirms Qatar's $1 million gift while she was at State Dept | Reuters
| NEW YORK
The
Clinton Foundation has confirmed it accepted a $1 million gift from
Qatar while Hillary Clinton was U.S. secretary of state without
informing the State Department, even though she had promised to let the
agency review new or significantly increased support from foreign
governments.Qatari
officials pledged the money in 2011 to mark the 65th birthday of Bill
Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband, and sought to meet the former U.S.
president in person the following year to present him the check,
according to an email from a foundation official to Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta. The email, among thousands
hacked from Podesta's account, was published last month by WikiLeaks.
Clinton
signed an ethics agreement governing her family's globe-straddling
foundation in order to become secretary of state in 2009. The agreement
was designed to increase transparency to avoid appearances that U.S.
foreign policy could be swayed by wealthy donors.
If
a new foreign government wished to donate or if an existing
foreign-government donor, such as Qatar, wanted to "increase materially"
its support of ongoing programs, Clinton promised that the State
Department's ethics official would be notified and given a chance to
raise any concerns.
| NEW YORK
