Bill Clinton’s staff demanded extravagant speaking fees and accommodations for several events in California shortly after departing the White House, raising eyebrows among the organizations that had invited the former president to speak.
The lavish expenses, such as $700 for a dinner for two, a $1,400 phone bill and $15,000 worth of air travel costs were revealed in documents obtained by the Republican National Committee and shared with the Los Angeles Times.
One email between organizers of an event indicated the speech hosts were “shocked” at the fees Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Al Gore had requested for their participation.
In another email conversation between event hosts and a staff member of the Harry Walker Agency, which represented Bill Clinton on the speaking circuit, organizers said they were worried about the expenses the former president was racking up.
“You should know that there will be expenses that you are responsible for paying,” an unnamed agency staffer said, noting that “we have never had a client complain when they received his hotel bill for incidentals.”
The records provide insight into the enormous amount of planning and coordination that went into each engagement Bill Clinton attended.
He and his wife raked in more than $100 million in speaking fees since leaving the White House, a practice that has caused problems for Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.
The former secretary of state has refused to release transcripts from her speeches to Wall Street executives, and her husband’s frequent speeches to entities with foreign ties have come under fire for creating conflicts of interest for Hillary Clinton when she worked at the State Department.
