If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency in November, the Clinton Foundation will end its affiliation with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the largest of more than a half dozen charities and initiatives operating under its philanthropic umbrella.
Clinton and her allies have used CHAI’s success in securing low-cost drugs to treat HIV/AIDS as a shield when critics have questioned potential conflicts of interest created by the foundation. According to the Clintons, CHAI has helped 11 million people around the world gain access to life-saving medications.
But the massive charity also has a history of messy tax filings and undisclosed foreign donations, problems that forced CHAI to resubmit two years’ worth of paperwork last year.
CHAI will become an independent organization if Clinton bests her opponent, Donald Trump, in the presidential race. All five members of its board, including former President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, will step down in that event.
The Boston Globe first reported the proposed changes to the Clinton Foundation.
CHAI’s announcement came on the heels of a New York attorney general inquiry into the Trump Foundation’s activity. A Washington Post investigation of the Republican nominee’s eponymous charity uncovered several irregularities in its financial history, prompting the probe that was made public Tuesday.
Critics have railed against the New York attorney general, a maxed-out donor to and vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, for looking into Trump’s foundation but seemingly ignoring the foreign donor disclosures omitted from several years of Clinton Foundation tax filings in that state.
If CHAI does spin off from the Clinton Foundation in November, it will continue to accept foreign and corporate donations.
Bill Clinton has vowed to end such contributions to other arms of his charity should his wife win the White House.
