Tell us about your dirty lawyer money, Mr. Clinton
By: EXAMINER EDITORIAL HOT ZONE
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January 14, 2009
Buried in the lengthy list of donors to the Clinton Foundation is a contribution of between $100,001 and $250,000 from William Lerach. Lerach is serving a federal prison term after his conviction, along with three fellow former senior partners of the disgraced Milberg Weiss class-action trial lawyers firm, for paying an estimated $11.7 million in bribes to plaintiffs in at least 150 cases going back to 1981. The firm received $250 million or more in tainted legal fees from the cases.
Lerach and Clinton are long-time political allies. But when The Washington Examiner asked if the former president would return Lerach’s dirty money, Clinton Foundation spokesman Mark McKenna refused to say. McKenna also refused to provide the specific amount and date of Lerach’s donation. And he declined to say what circumstances would result in a contribution being returned.
That such faux transparency is characteristic of the former president and incoming Secretary of State is seen in Hillary Clinton’s claim during her Senate confirmation hearing yesterday that State Department ethics lawyers found “no inherent conflict of interest” between her job and Clinton Foundation donors. Well, of course there is no inherent conflict, but what about specific conflicts, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton?
