WASHINGTON – Newly surfaced emails
show the Clinton Foundation asked the State Department about proceeding
with two presumably paid speeches for former President Bill Clinton in
North Korea and the Republic of the Congo, despite each engagement’s
ties to repressive regimes.
The emails, obtained by FoxNews.com, surfaced as part of a records request by the group Citizens United.
In both sets of 2012 emails between the foundation led by Bill
Clinton and the department led by wife Hillary Clinton, the former
president’s team acknowledged the invitations could raise concerns. But
they asked the State Department, which screened all such speeches by the
ex-president, anyway.
In one May 14, 2012 email, Clinton Foundation staffer Amitabh Desai forwarded an email with the subject line
“North Korea invitation” to Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s then-chief of staff at the State Department.
“Dear Cheryl, we’d welcome your feedback on the attached invitation – would USG have concerns?” Desai wrote.
Four days later, Desai sent Mills another email. “Is it safe to
assume USG would have concerns about WJC accepting the attached
invitation related to North Korea? Thanks, Ami.”
Mills responded, “Decline it.”
ABC News first reported on the emails.
Hillary Clinton, on the sidelines of the Democratic National
Committee meeting in Minneapolis Friday, defended the process for
vetting these requests.
Clinton admitted receiving “some unusual requests” but said “they all
went through the process” and, ultimately, the invitations in question
were declined.
Though in a curious aside, the 2016 Democratic presidential
frontrunner noted her husband went to North Korea in 2009 to rescue
reporters.
“You might not recall but [President] Obama sent Bill to North Korea
to rescue journalists who were captured,” Clinton told reporters. “Every
offer we made was rebuffed and we offered many people to go and finally
North Koreans said if Bill comes, we will give him two journalists.”
Clinton left the podium before any follow-ups could be asked.
In the case of the North Korea invite, while the foundation
acknowledged potential concerns, the official followed up in early June
after Mills said to decline it. Desai said the matter came from Tony
Rodham, Hillary Clinton’s brother, and they would like to relay “any
specific concerns” as Rodham was about to meet with Bill Clinton.
Mills responded on June 9, 2012: “If he needs more let him know his
wife knows and I am happy to call him secure when he is near a secure
line.”
The email exchange does not include much detail on the invitation, in contrast with the messages on the
Congo request.
They show the speaking engagement in Brazzaville came with a hefty
$650,000 speaking fee – one of numerous such engagements through which
the former president has made millions since leaving office.
The catch: the event included the leaders of not only the Republic of
the Congo but Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila – whose
government has an abysmal human rights record. And Clinton, under the
terms of the invite, would have to stay after the speech to greet Kabila
and other dignitaries.
The Harry Walker Agency, which worked with the Clinton Foundation on
coordinating speeches, recommended in a June 6, 2012 email declining the
invitation.
“I anticipate the location for the event and the parties involved
might give you pause,” Don Walker, the agency’s president, wrote in an
email to the foundation.
“We have gently asked if the venue must be in the Congo, and if the
Head of State involvement is necessary,” Walker wrote in the email.
“They tell us that both are mandatory. For that reason we anticipate you
will want us to quickly decline.”
From there, Desai forwarded the email to Mills, Clinton aide Huma
Abedin and other State Department officials saying despite the issues,
“WJC wants to know what state thinks of it if he took it 100% for the
foundation. We’d welcome your thoughts.”
Ultimately, the engagement did not go forward.
“The emails speak volumes to the ongoing undercurrent that Bill
Clinton would take money from anyone,” David Bossie, president of
Citizens United, told FoxNews.com on Friday. He disputed Hillary
Clinton’s claims that the State Department vetted every request the
foundation made and argued the emails show “a pattern.”
Bossie said that while some Clinton supporters might use the emails
to show the system set up by the State Department and the Clinton
Foundation worked, the emails speak to a seedier side of the Clinton
Foundation.
“If this was a one-and-done issue, I’d be like, it’s only once and
they handled it correctly,” Bossie said, adding, “If their pushback is
that the speeches didn’t happen and that it’s a great example of them
doing a good job, I’d say, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t try.”
