A Clinton Foundation official asked an aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if the government would allow the well-connected charity to accept a donation from an oil company with extensive ties to Iran.
Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, did not deny the request when she received it in August 2012, instead asking the foundation official to clarify his point, according to an email obtained by Citizens United through the Freedom of Information Act.
The email shows Petronas, a Malaysian state-owned oil company, wanted to send CEO Shamsul Azhar bin Abbas to a Clinton Global Initiative event as a paying member.
Abbas does not appear in the Clinton Foundation’s donor record, nor does the company he oversaw.
But Amitabh Desai, the Clinton Foundation’s director of foreign policy, raised concerns about Petronas’ commercial connections to Iran amid sanctions against the country.
“For years they were shipping oil to Iran,” Desai told Mills in an email. “Would the CEO attending CGI as a paying member be of concern for [the U.S. government]?”
Mills met Desai’s request with skepticism.
“Can you check the facts — seems odd they would ship oil to Iran,” she said. “Either way, is your point that they do business without a waiver?”
Two months earlier, the State Department highlighted a $150 million contract between Petronas and General Electric in Malaysia.
Petronas publicly pledged to stop selling oil to Iran in 2010, as the U.S. was implementing strict economic sanctions against the country.
David Bossie, president of Citizens United, said the timeline of the State Department’s announcement of the deal with GE should raise questions.
“A month after the announcement, the Clinton Foundation staff is contacting the State Department saying, ‘Hey, we want to shake down the CEO, essentially, of Petronus, is that ok?’ And that is, ‘We are going to go to the CEO of a big company that you just announced a big deal [with], and see if we can get them to become a paying member of the Clinton Foundation,” Bossie said.
“That is political crony capitalism — that’s the definition of it, is using your political contacts and your political achievements for financial gain for the foundation,” he continued. “Clearly, [there was] a conflict of interest.”
The Clinton Foundation did not return a request for comment.
