Emails made public Thursday by WikiLeaks suggest Bill Clinton accepted “expensive gifts” from Clinton Global Initiative donors and kept them at his home.
In a November 2011 email to John Podesta, currently Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, complaining of the conflicts of interest that plagued the Clinton Global Initiative, longtime confidante Doug Band mentioned that the former president had several undisclosed conflicts.
“He is personally paid by 3 cgi sponsors [sic], gets many expensive gifts from them, some that are at home etc,” Band wrote.
Band had recently left a position at the foundation to co-found a consulting firm called Teneo Strategies. In his email, he lamented that he had been forced to sign a disclosure form as a board member of the Clinton Global Initiative, while Bill Clinton had not.
“I wrote that my wife designs bags for cgi [sic], and loses money doing so plus donating her time,” Band said. “And that Teneo represents 4 cgi [sic] sponsors, 3 of which Teneo brought to cgi [sic].”
The former Clinton aide said he “could add 500 different examples of things like this.”
His email to Podesta came amid tensions with Chelsea Clinton over rumors that Teneo had invoked Bill Clinton’s name, without his knowledge and consent, to woo clients.
Band laid out the conflicts of interest harbored by other high-level staffers at the foundation. For example, he said the CEO of the Clinton Global Initiative owned “a ton” of stock in Goldman Sachs, a major donor, while directing the bank’s participation in the charity’s annual events.
— source washingtonexaminer.com By Sarah Westwood