In addition to the Clinton Foundation, she's being paid huge amounts for "speeches" that have business with the federal government!Firms that paid for Clinton speeches have federal interests
By Stephen Braun ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — It’s not just Wall Street banks.
Most companies and groups that paid
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to speak between 2013
and 2015 have lobbied federal agencies in recent years, and more than
one-third are government contractors, a review has found. Their
interests are sprawling and would
follow Clinton to the White House should she win election this fall.
The review of federal records,
regulatory filings and correspondence showed that almost all the 82
corporations, trade associations and other groups that paid for or
sponsored Clinton’s speeches have actively sought to sway the government
— lobbying, bidding for contracts, commenting on federal policy and in
some cases contacting
State Department officials or Clinton herself during her tenure as secretary of state.
Presidents are not generally bound
by many of the ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations that apply to
unelected executive branch officials, although they are subject to laws
covering related conduct, such as bribery and illegal gratuities.
Clinton’s 94 paid appearances over two years on the speech circuit
leave her open to scrutiny over
decisions she would make in the White House or influence that might
affect the interests of her speech sponsors.
Rival presidential candidate Sen.
Bernie Sanders and Republican critics have mocked Clinton over her
closed-door talks to banks and investment firms, saying she is too
closely aligned with Wall Street to curb its abuses. Sanders said in a
speech in New
York that Clinton earned an average of about $225,000 for each speech and goaded her for declining to release transcripts.
“If somebody gets paid $225,000 for a
speech, it must be an unbelievably extraordinary speech,” Sanders said
at an outdoor rally at Washington Square Park last week in advance of
the New York primary. “I kind of think if that $225,000 speech was so
extraordinary, she should
release the transcripts and share it with all of us.”
Clinton said again Thursday that she
will release transcripts of her paid speeches to private groups or
companies when other political candidates do the same. She compared such
disclosures to the long-standing practice of politicians being expected
to release their income tax returns, which she did far earlier and more
thoroughly than Sanders.
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