• Scandals At State: How Clinton, Kerry Used Office To Enrich Their Famil

    From Nancy Pelosi Is Also Guilty@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jul 3 11:48:23 2017
    XPost: niagara.police, alt.lawyers, alt.tv.law-and-order
    XPost: houston.general

    Corruption: What is it about Democrats and the State Department?
    Despite their repeated claims of transparency, it turns out that
    both Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry
    used their positions to enrich members of their own families --
    at taxpayer expense.

    As the murky ties between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary's
    State Department become clearer, a new report from the Daily
    Caller notes that current Secretary of State Kerry's daughter
    received money for her nonprofit group from State.

    Indeed, the Daily Caller investigation shows that more than $9
    million of State Department money made its way through the Peace
    Corps to the nonprofit started by Dr. Vanessa Kerry, John
    Kerry's daughter. And the money was handed out without
    competition.

    Kerry's nonprofit, Seed Global Health, got its first contract in
    2012. Yes, that was when Hillary was still in office. But John
    Kerry then was a senator who headed the Committee on Foreign
    Relations, which is charged with overseeing both the State
    Department and the Peace Corps.

    There is a clear conflict of interest there.

    That's bad enough. But last year, in September, the Seed group
    got a four-year extension on its deal while John Kerry was
    secretary of state.

    Another conflict of interest. Crony capitalism, anyone? Whether
    you think that what Seed does in Africa -- it helps train
    doctors and nurses -- is valuable or not, this no-competition
    grant to a nonprofit founded by a top official's daughter reeks
    of rank favoritism at best, corruption at worst.

    "Kerry and government officials colluded to launch the program
    and ensure that Seed would get the contract," the Daily Caller
    concluded, after reviewing the relevant memos and papers related
    to the deal.

    But it doesn't end there. Because, even as the Kerry deal was
    being revealed, further strands of the heretofore hidden ties
    between then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton
    Foundation and a mysterious Russian billionaire with close ties
    to Vladimir Putin are coming to light.

    The Washington Examiner got its hands on emails showing that the
    Clinton Foundation sought ties with Russian billionaire Viktor
    Vekselberg at a time when he was in charge of an important
    element of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "Russian
    reset."

    Hillary helped create "a major technology transfer initiative"
    that "may have substantially undermined U.S. national security,"
    according to Peter Schweizer, president of the Government
    Accountability Institute and the author of " Clinton Cash."

    Part of the "reset" was the creation of "Skolkovo," an
    industrial enclave near Moscow that was to become a kind of
    Russian Silicon Valley. The idea was to encourage U.S. firms to
    help out with both technology and investment, in exchange for
    market access.

    Despite warnings from both the FBI and her own State Department
    about the possibility of Russia getting access to militarily
    sensitive technologies, Hillary went ahead with the program. Why?

    At the time, Vekselberg -- head of the Skolkovo Foundation and a
    pal of Vladimir Putin -- was also a contributor to the Clinton
    Foundation. These ties later proved quite lucrative, with 17 of
    the 28 American companies that participated in the Skolkovo
    project also being donors to the Clinton Foundation.

    All the way back in 2010, as Skolkovo was getting underway,
    former President Bill Clinton traveled to Russia to deliver a
    speech for which he was paid $500,000 by a mysterious Russian
    investment bank named "Renaissance Capital." While there he met
    with a variety of movers and shakers, including Vekselberg.

    With the Clintons, one hand always washes the other.

    Now that it has been revealed that thousands of emails on
    Hillary's unsecured home-brew server have been intentionally
    destroyed, it is certainly fitting to wonder whether damning or
    incriminating evidence about the Clinton Foundation and its ties
    to Hillary's office at the State Department was destroyed.

    The U.S. State Department used to be known for its high-toned
    and principled stands in defense of U.S. foreign-policy goals
    and interests. But today, after two Democratic leaders, it
    appears to be more of a revolving door for crony capitalists.

    We would hope Congress would continue to investigate the email
    scandal and what appears to be rampant abuse of office that has
    taken place at the State Department over the past eight years.
    Such clear conflicts of interest used to raise political hackles.

    Congress should, at minimum, make sure that future secretaries
    of state no longer abuse their office to personally enrich their
    families and friends. Anything less is to condone criminality.

    http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/scandals-at-state- how-clinton-kerry-used-office-to-enrich-their-families/
     

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