According to a new report from the Associated Press, Hillary Clinton had regular openings in her schedule to meet with wealthy donors to the Clinton Foundation during her time as Secretary of State:
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton opened her office to dozens of influential Democratic party fundraisers, former Clinton administration and campaign loyalists, and corporate donors to her family's global charity, according to State Department calendars obtained by The Associated Press.
The woman who would become a 2016 presidential candidate met or spoke by phone with nearly 100 corporate executives and long-time Clinton political and charity donors during her four years at the State Department between 2009 and 2013, records show. Those formally scheduled meetings involved heads of companies and organizations that pursued business or private interests with the Obama administration, including with the State Department while Clinton was in charge.
The AP found no evidence of legal or ethical conflicts in Clinton's meetings in its examination of 1,294 pages from the calendars. Her sit-downs with business leaders were not unique among recent secretaries of state, who sometimes summoned corporate executives to aid in international affairs, documents show.
But the difference with Clinton's meetings was that she was a 2008 presidential contender who was widely expected to run again in 2016. Her availability to luminaries from politics, business and charity shows the extent to which her office became a sounding board for their interests. And her ties with so many familiar faces from those intersecting worlds were complicated by their lucrative financial largess and political support over the years — even during her State Department tenure — to her campaigns, her husband's and to her family's foundation.
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There are a number of reason's why Clinton's schedule at the State Department is relevant, but the news in this report is most relevant to allegations made in the book Clinton Cash earlier this year, which was about Clinton's habit of doing political favors in her capacity as Secretary in return for donations to the Clinton Foundation.
Further, this once again brings up the issues surrounding Clinton's use of a private email server during her time at State, her decision to delete 60,000 emails she deemed "personal" and without oversight before leaving her position.
And finally, these schedules won't do Clinton any favors on the campaign trail as she attempts to distance herself from corporations and Wall Street.
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