The Clinton Foundation is witnessing a rapid plummet in donations.
According to the group’s most recent financial report, contributions fell from $29.6 million in 2019 to $16.3 million in 2020 — a 45% decline amid COVID-19 and the lockdown-induced recession. In 2016, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ran for President, the group raised $62.9 million, indicating an overall 74% donation decline in a four-year period.
The Clinton Foundation works with “strategic partners to develop and implement programs that create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service.” Its programs relate to increasing crop yields, battling climate change, and providing relief after natural disasters.
The organization, however, has often been accused of political motives and pay-to-play schemes. Last year, President Trump’s Department of Justice investigated how the FBI dealt with claims of such corruption at the Clinton Foundation.
The New York Times reported:
Mr. Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut assigned by Mr. Barr to review the Russia inquiry, has sought documents and interviews about how federal law enforcement officials handled an investigation around the same time into allegations of political corruption at the Clinton Foundation, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Durham’s team members have suggested to others that they are comparing the two investigations as well as examining whether investigators in the Russia inquiry flouted laws or policies. It was not clear whether Mr. Durham’s investigators were similarly looking for violations in the Clinton Foundation investigation, nor whether the comparison would be included or play a major role in the outcome of Mr. Durham’s inquiry.
“There was a clear double standard by the Department of Justice and FBI when it came to the Trump and Clinton campaigns in 2016,” commented Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at the time. “[The] Bureau, as it is supposed to do, required that Hillary Clinton be defensively briefed about the matter so she could engage in corrective action. When it came to the Trump campaign, there were four counterintelligence investigations opened against Trump campaign associates. Not one time was President Trump defensively briefed about the FBI’s concerns.”
The Clinton Foundation dismissed the investigation, stating that it “has regularly been subjected to baseless, politically motivated allegations, and time after time these allegations have been proven false.”
More recently, an attorney who represented Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was indicted for allegedly lying to federal law enforcement officials.
“Michael Sussmann, a partner with Perkins Coie who also represented the Democratic National Committee in connection with Russia’s hack of the organization, is accused of making false statements during a Sept. 19, 2016 meeting with former FBI General Counsel James Baker,” Reuters reported. “This marks the second criminal case Durham has filed so far since former Attorney General William Barr tapped him in 2019 to investigate U.S. officials who probed the Trump-Russia contacts.”
According to the indictment, Sussmann “stated falsely” that he was not doing his work “for any client,” which led FBI counsel to believe that Sussmann “was acting as a good citizen merely passing along information, not as a paid advocate or political operative.” However, “this statement was intentionally false and misleading” because Sussman had been acting on the behalf of clients such as an American technology industry executive, an American internet company, and the Clinton campaign.