You may have read about the $146,886 jet trip a prominent CEO bankrolled for the Clintons to vacation in Acapulco, but this trip is just one of the favors the Clintons received from a company that makes millions selling the kind of personal data that's coveted by political campaigns.

When asked by the Associated Press about her trips sponsored by InfoUSA, a data mining corporation her husband is paid to advise, Hillary said “Whatever I’ve done, I complied with the Senate rules at the time. That’s the way every senator operates.”

But one question, seemingly obvious to a conservative journalist like me, why is Hillary, who is running for the Democrat nomination for President, so cozy with a CEO who sells personal data so valued by political campaigns?

The Associated Press didn’t ask this. The Associated Press also didn’t ask Hillary about the personal information InfoUSA sells about Clinton donors.

What has been covered in the mainstream media is the financial support Vinod Gupta, CEO of InfoUSA, has lavished on the Clinton through his personal checkbook and company coffers.

Gupta has secured $3 million in consulting contracts for the former President. Gupta has also donated at least $1 million to Bill Clinton’s presidential library, $2 million to Hillary’s 1999 New Year’s Eve Millennium party and “bundled” $200,000 for her Senate campaign.

The Clintons were also given use of InfoUSA’s corporate jet to take trips to Switzerland, Hawaii, Mexico and Jamaica at an estimated cost of $900,000. When Hillary used the jet for campaign purposes she only reimbursed the company at the cost of a first class flight. Her reimbursements, for seven of these trips, totaled $450,000—a significant discount from private jet fare costs.

According to Hillary’s Senate financial disclosure forms, InfoUSA also paid Mr. Clinton $200,000 to deliver a speech in Omaha, Nebraska, where the company is headquartered, on July 27, 2001. Hillary’s disclosure forms also report that Mr. Clinton is paid an undisclosed fee of “more than $1,000” annually in “non-employee compensation.”

Recently, Cardinal Value Equity Partners, InfoUSA’s largest shareholder filed a lawsuit against Gupta’s for recklessly spending company money. Among other things, the shareholders were outraged about the company money had been spent on the Clintons.

Now, here’s what you haven’t been told about the Clinton’s relationship with InfoUSA.

Gupta’s company is a database marketing service that, according to its website, sells personal contact information like emails, phone numbers and home addresses for 210 million US customers and 14 million US businesses.

This information is used by political campaigns to target voters.

In the last election, InfoUSA sold personal information like this to the Democratic National Committee. A November 15, 2006 article by InformationWeek reported that the DNC spent $8 million through the 2006 election cycle building a database called Netezza and that “somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent was filled with data purchased through InfoUSA.”

And, it looks like the Clintons have sold some donor information through InfoUSA sponsored lists. An April 30, 2006 article by the New York Daily News reported that Hillary had collected at least $340,000 in cash for mailing donation solicitations on their behalf to Clinton donors.

Walter Karl Inc. is InfoUSA’s List Management and List Brokerage Division and manages such lists. Among its offerings, it sells “data cards” that contain email, phone numbers and/or home addresses for those who contributed to Bill Clinton’s legal defense fund and Hillary Clintons’ presidential campaign.

Data cards currently sold by Walter Karl contain contact information for persons who gave money to: the Clinton Presidential Library, the Clinton Legal Defense Fund, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign called Friends of Hillary and Hillary Clinton’s political action committee called HillPAC. Continued...