A House Republican lawmaker is planning to ask the Federal Trade Commission to take a cue from law enforcement by looking into the Clinton Foundation’s nonprofit status, and is calling the foundation a “sham charity.”
The letter, which is being circulated by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. and which was obtained by the Washington Examiner, asks the FTC to investigate the charitable status of the group, due mainly to the criminal probe announced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in January. That agency is seeking to determine whether public corruption laws were violated when Hillary Clinton worked for the foundation at the same time she served as secretary of state.
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“The FTC has a history of investigating ‘sham’ charities for false and deceptive statements and should initiate a review of the Foundation,” Blackburn wrote.
The conservative firebrand added that the group already has a tumultuous with both the FTC and the Better Business Bureau. The latter said in 2013 that the Clinton Foundation failed to meet its “transparency and accountability requirements,” while the FTC had the group on a “watch list” until December of last year. The FTC has also declared itself unable to rate the foundation because of what it calls an “atypical business model.”
Additionally, Blackburn noted, the foundation has also had a problem with reporting its finances. The organization failed to report millions of dollars it received in grants from foreign governments when Clinton served as secretary of state. CEO Maura Pally said the grants were “mistakenly combined with other donations,” while former President Bill Clinton called it “just an accident.”
“These are troubling developments. They call into question the legitimacy of the Foundation’s work as it operates under a cloak of philanthropy,” Blackburn said. “The existence of a federal criminal probe should alarm the Commission, which initiates civil actions requiring a lower standard of proof.”
“These allegations may stifle the ability of other organizations associated with current or former public officials to advance charitable causes by undermining public confidence in such institutions,” the congresswoman concluded. “Consistent with the FTC’s mission and precedent, we request that you review the above allegations to determine if the Foundation is a ‘sham’ charity.”
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The letter will ask the FTC to respond within 30 days.
