The Washington Post is up with a doozy of a story showing some serious and troubling financial conflicts of interest during Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State. Read the whole thing, but here are some key paragraphs:
In one instance, foundation officials acknowledged they should have sought approval in 2010 from the State Department ethics office, as required by the agreement for new government donors, before accepting a $500,000 donation from the Algerian government. …
The contribution coincided with a spike in the North African country’s lobbying visits to the State Department.
That year, Algeria spent $422,097 lobbying U.S. government officials on human rights and U.S.-Algerian relations, according to filings made under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Data tracked by the Sunlight Foundation shows that while the Algerian government’s overall spending on lobbying in the United States remained steady, there was an increase in 2010 in State Department meetings held with lobbyists representing the country — with 12 visits to department officials that year, including some visits with top political appointees. In the years before and after, only a handful of State Department visits were recorded by Algeria lobbyists.
The country was a concern for Clinton and her agency.
This is great work by the Washington Post, but it’s something of a rarity. After weeks of the media blasting GOP figures for their opinions (or lack thereof) on the origin of life as we know it or demanding to know whether every Republican candidate agrees with the private and largely inconsequential remarks of the former mayor of New York — it would be nice if a real story with serious repercussions for a prominent Democrat were actually covered thoroughly by the media before any attempts to dismiss or downplay it. Hopefully this Washington Post piece is the start of a trend.
