A week after Hillary Clinton took heat over the Clinton Foundation's taking money from several Middle East governments, her base has new concerns about its ties to troubled banks,
CNN reports.
The cable network investigated and found, after reviewing a list of events from the Clinton Global Initiative's (CGI) Annual Meeting, partnerships between the foundation and at least six banks that were "under investigation, involved in litigation or had been fined by government agencies and regulators at the time of the meeting."
Such ties to Wall Street raise alarm for progressives who have long worried that the Clinton family's coziness with the financial sector could hurt Hillary politically, CNN noted.
Among those banking concerns that partnered with CGI included Barclays, Goldman Sachs, the French bank Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank from Germany and Britain's Standard Chartered, CNN said, adding that "all of the banks have had pockmarked pasts" — and many were either under investigation or fined for breaking Iran sanctions while Clinton was secretary of state.
Said CNN: "The fact that the Foundation partnered with banks that were actively under investigation raises questions over what restrictions, if any, the Foundation placed on its fundraising operation."
The new concerns come after a
Wall Street Journal report last week that found the Clinton Foundation had taken in
$48 million from foreign governments including several from the Middle East.
In the wake of the report, the Clintons said they would
reconsider accepting such monies if Hillary Clinton does step into the presidential race, as is expected, the Journal added.
The National Journal's Ron Fournier called ties to foreign concerns "stupid and sleazy," in an interview with CNN's John King.
"They have this obsession of campaign money. This is part of their DNA to go get money any way they can," Fournier noted of the Clintons' fears of being outspent in a presidential bid.
"She's on record that they don't support taking money from those countries that support terrorism. I just don't get it," he added. "Politically it's stupid because you are taking money from countries… that are not very good for women."
He added: "It's sleazy because of the perception. It raises the level of 'what is it that they are expecting for that money?' "
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