As more and more of Hillary Clinton’s emails come to light, previously obscure connections with and influences on Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state have also arisen. The latest batch of emails revealed one such case involving Clinton’s daughter Chelsea and, by extension, the Clinton Foundation.
In August 2012, during her stint as a reporter for NBC News, Chelsea did a two-part story from Kenya on elephants and the illegal trade in ivory. The issue apparently resonated with Chelsea, and on October 1 of that year, she emailed her mom about a National Geographic cover story, “Blood Ivory,” concerning wildlife poaching, elephants, and the global trade in ivory.
That same day, Secretary Clinton replied enthusiastically to Chelsea, “I am so ready to work on this. Let’s make it one of our joint projects!” (The emails to and from Chelsea use the pseudonym Diane Reynolds that had been set up for Chelsea on the Clintons’ private email server.)
Hillary wasn’t kidding. Just a little more than a month after the email exchange, the secretary hosted an event at the State Department entitled “Wildlife Trafficking and Conservation: A Call to Action.” The event was attended by foreign ambassadors and officials from international conservation organizations, as well as interested parties from the private sector.
In her remarks at the event, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that some might wonder “why a Secretary of State is keynoting an event about wildlife trafficking and conservation, or why we are hosting this event at the State Department in the first place.” The secretary said that in recent years, “wildlife trafficking has become more organized, more lucrative, more widespread, and more dangerous,” and that the growth of the middle class has increased demand for illicit goods such as ivory as wealth or status symbols. This has led to security issues around the globe as rebels and criminals have turned to illegal wildlife trade to fund their operations, she said. Mrs. Clinton did not mention Chelsea during her speech.
The November event was followed up by an issue of a State Department publication devoted to wildlife trafficking. The entire 40 pages of the State Department’s eJournal in December dealt with wildlife conservation, illegal trafficking, and efforts to stop the illicit trade. The issue included dozens of references to ivory, the issue that had grabbed Chelsea’s attention during the preceding summer.
In addition, at least fifty-four U.S. missions around the world commemorated “Wildlife Conservation Day” on December 4, 2012.
Although Hillary left State in January 2013, she and her daughter remained involved in the ivory trade issue. In August 2013, Chelsea, on the board of the Clinton Foundation since 2011 and named vice-chair in June 2013, wrote “How We Can End The Elephant Poaching Crisis” for the Clinton Foundation blog. (Mrs. Clinton herself joined the Foundation board in May 2013, and the foundation was renamed the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation in the same year.)
Then in September 2013, at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, the Foundation announced $80 million in commitments from various nongovernmental organizations to fund a campaign to save Africa’s elephants by cutting the demand for ivory. According to the Guardian:
As recent as August 2015, Chelsea has continued to champion the cause through the Clinton Global Initiative, writing that China had announced intentions to end the legal processing and sale of ivory, potentially further cutting into the demand for ivory.
For her part, Hillary left the Foundation in 2015 when she announced her run for president.
