Hillary Clinton may lead the polls, but she is again under fire regarding donations to the Clinton Foundation and her private email server.
Thanks to a lawsuit from the conservative group Judicial Watch, a federal judged ordered that the State Department expedite its review of fifteen thousand documents from Clinton’s private email servers, which are held by the FBI. At the same time, on Monday, more emails were leaked, in this case being an exchange between Huma Abedin and a former Clinton Foundation executive.
The controversy stir ups once again
The Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has used the controversy of Clinton’s use of a private e-mail system while being secretary of state, and the Clinton Foundation’s contributions from foreigns corporations and governments.
On Monday night in Ohio, Trump again attacked Clinton, saying the Foundation “the most corrupt enterprise in political history”, and stating it should be shut down and a special prosecutor must be “immediately” appointed.
“As the evidence has become public over the last several months, I’ve become increasingly shocked by the vast scope of Hillary Clinton’s criminality. Her actions corrupted and disgraced one of the most important departments of government, indeed one of only four established by the United States Constitution itself” shouted Trump.
However, the Clinton campaign defended the Democratic candidate by stating she took “no actions based on donations to her family’s foundation.”
Josh Schwerin, a campaign spokesman also said Judicial Watch was a “right-wing organization” that has been attacking the Clinton family since the nineties.
Bill Clinton steps up for the foundation
On Monday, Bill Clinton released a statement, claiming that the charity will continue its work, although changes “would be necessary.”
On his declaration, Clinton also said he would step down from the foundation’s board, and it also would stop accepting contributions from foreign entities, whether it’s from governments or corporations.
“If Hillary is elected president, the Foundation’s work, funding, global reach, and my role in it will present questions that must be resolved in a way that keeps the good work going while eliminating legitimate concerns about potential conflicts of interest,” stated Clinton.
Clinton’s biggest weakness
A recent national poll made by Bloomberg Politics concluded that 53 percent of likely voters were “troubled a lot” by the foundation acceptance of foreign contributions.
This was also true for more than half of likely voters, who also claimed that Clinton’s use of a private email server troubled them “a lot.”
Lamar Smith, House Science, Space, and Technology Chairman and Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson claimed to have subpoenaed three companies that provided services to Clinton’s private email server.
According to the Republicans, the subpoenas aim is to“obtain the information necessary to answer questions about the structure and security of the e-mail system.”
More emails get leaked
On Monday, Judicial Watch released 725 pages of Clinton’s emails. In one of the most controversial ones, Doug Band, a former executive of the Clinton Foundation got in touch on 2009 with Huma Abedin, to help schedule time with Crown Prince Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain.
Abedin replied that a meeting was already being set up “thru official channels.”
The meeting ended up happening on June 26, 2009. This incident is not unusual because a secretary of state would meet with many foreign world leaders.
However, what is unsettling is the use of a foundation to set up such a meeting.
According to Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, the new emails confirm Clinton’s allegedly abuse of office power “by selling favors to Clinton Foundation donors”, and asked for an “independent” investigation.
The State Department and the FBI got involved
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, claimed that it “was natural” that the State Department and the Clinton Foundation were in constant touch since they were both attacking the “same global issues.”
However, on Monday, US District James Boasberg urged the State Department to finish the review of 14,900 documents that the FBI recovered regarding the controversy.
Nonetheless, a Justice Department lawyer told Boasberg that the review process made by the State Department required an appraisal of the public records.
The attorney also proposed a release that would begin on October 14. However, this infuriated Lauren Burke, a Judicial Watch lawyer.
Burke stated angered “what have they been doing for the past four weeks?” since by October, the State Department would have had the documents for over ten weeks.
These reports do not include the 30,000 emails Clinton had previously turned over when the email scandal broke up the first time and features both personal and work-related communications.
The Clintons defend themselves
On Monday, Brian Fallon, a Clinton spokesman, said that Clinton already had provided the State Department with “all the work-related emails” that she had back in 2014 and that the campaign has been transparent and open regarding the release of more work-related records.
Gerald Austin, a Democratic consultant in Ohio, has also claimed that the voters had already “made up their minds” regarding all the controversy, and as such, whatever happens later won’t change the public’s perception.
Sources: Boston Globe