How $2 Billion Created A Big Clinton Headache

Top political reporters go deep inside the inner workings of the Clinton Foundation: the billions, the global influence, and what it could all mean for Hillary Clinton.

The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation has raised a lot of money from all over the world. 'Well, why not?' ask Bill and Hillary Clinton and their supporters. It’s a global philanthropy doing a lot of global good. 'Well, wait a minute,' say critics. Who gave what? And for what? A big story in the Washington Post this week goes deep on exactly how the Clinton Foundation and its billions came to be. It is, at the very least, a fascinating, Clintonesque tale. Before the 2016 campaign is over, it may be more than that. Two of the reporters are with us. This hour On Point:  the building of the Clinton Foundation.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Tom Hamburger, money and politics reporter for the Washington Post. (@thamburger)

Rosalind Helderman, political enterprise and investigative reporter at the Washington Post. (@postroz)

David Sirota, senior editor for investigations at the International Business Times. (@davidsirota)

Tracy Sefl, Democratic Party strategist. Former senior adviser for the Ready for Hillary Super PAC. (@tracysefl)

Washington Post: The inside story of how the Clintons built a $2 billion global empire — "Today, the Clinton Foundation is unlike anything else in the history of the nation and, perhaps, the world: It is a global philanthropic empire run by a former U.S. president and closely affiliated with a potential future president, with the audacious goal of solving some of the world’s most vexing problems by bringing together the wealthiest, glitziest and most powerful people from every part of the planet."

New York Times: An Award for Bill Clinton Came With $500,000 for His Foundation — "The former president of the United States agreed to accept a lifetime achievement award at the June 2014 event after Ms. Nemcova offered a $500,000 contribution to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The donation, made late last year after the foundation sent the charity an invoice, amounted to almost a quarter of the evening’s net proceeds — enough to build 10 preschools in Indonesia."

International Business Times: Hillary Clinton's State Department Increased Chemical Arms Sales To Middle East Countries That Gave To Clinton Foundation — "The Clinton-run State Department’s approval of chemical and biological exports to the Egyptian government increased in volume just as dollars flowed from Mubarak-linked entities into the coffers of Clinton family concerns. A group closely associated with the Mubarak government paid Bill Clinton a $250,000 speaking fee in 2010, less than 4 months before the Egyptian revolution began. In 2012, a firm with an ownership stake in the company that manufactured the tear gas reportedly used by Egyptian security forces against the uprising paid $100,000 to $250,000 for another Bill Clinton speech"