Foreign Fundraisers are a big problem in politics around the world. Interfering with the sovereignty of other counties gets people all wound up.
If Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton didn’t already have enough problems with the FBI running a criminal investigation into her use of a private email server, now there is more.
While she was Secretary of State, Ms. Clinton used her private email server for a mixture of private and state business. She deleted 30,000 emails she said were private, but nobody knows if any of those ‘private’ emails related to Bill and Hillary’s Clinton Foundation.
The FBI is also investigating possible corruption linked to Hillary’s campaign due to hidden contributions and the identity of the contributors.
This could be another scandal Ms. Clinton faces.
Ms. Clinton’s 2016 presidential election campaign held more fundraisers on foreign soil than any other candidate running for president this year. If nothing else, that must be a massive red flag. And it isn’t just a few. Apparently there were at least 13 fundraisers outside the USA so far, according to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.
The sunlight foundation tracks political fundraising invitations, and that is how this information came to be known. It is interesting to note that Hillary did not attend any of those overseas events. That may allow her to blame it on a scapegoat.
The campaign previously reported raising $45 million to June 2015. 94% of the contributors gave small donations, under $250, with the average almost $145.
The Sunlight Foundation had previously investigated Republicans, including fundraising for Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush. The Cruz campaign was assisted by what the foundation called “a plethora of SuperPACs.”
Nobody else can match Hillary Clinton for overseas fundraising – they just don’t have the contacts. She has huge enthusiasm for foreign contributions. What we have to worry about is the political favors they want.
The Sunlight Foundation only found overseas fundraising in the Clinton campaign, not in any of the others. Also according to the foundation, Hillary’s campaign could bring in more money than Obama did in his last campaign in 2012. Obama’s campaign reached out across the world, into China, Egypt and others.
One of the Clinton fundraisers was held in Mexico, last February. One of the co-hosts of that fundraiser was a friend of Hillary – a Wal-Mart lobbyist who relocated to Mexico in 2015. What you may not know is that Hillary served on the Wal-Mart board between 1986 and 1992.
So how do they get around US laws on campaign fundraising?
The campaign fundraising regulator, the Federal Election Commission, has a by-law that states “foreign nationals are prohibited from making any contributions or expenditures in connection with any election in the U.S.”
So that means all of the contributors overseas must be U.S. citizens and “green card” holders living abroad.
Those US citizens and green card holders must have a lot of money to spare! It would be very interesting to see who they are, and if they have the means to make these donations, or if they are a front for others.
We may need to see what light is shone on these donations in the next Sunlight Foundation report.
