Records detailing former President Bill Clinton’s frequent paid speeches on behalf of major financial institutions were published just one day before Hillary Clinton took aim at Wall Street on the campaign trail.
Although Bill Clinton’s acceptance of six-figure fees from Goldman Sachs and its ilk are well known, the new documents — and the timing of their release on Wednesday — add another wrinkle to Hillary Clinton’s complicated relationship with the very financial sector she has vowed to tame.
But the Democratic front-runner has stopped short of the barn-burning, pitchfork-wielding rhetoric of her rivals when it comes to Wall Street, a posture that could frustrate some in her party who have sought to pull Hillary Clinton further left on a variety of issues.
Part of Hillary Clinton’s dilemma lies in the fact that financial firms and their top executives have contributed heavily to her past and present campaigns, her family’s foundation and their own personal wealth by paying her and her husband to speak at sponsored events.
Hillary Clinton has faced pressure from progressives to take a tougher stance against big banks and institute reforms that would once again separate investment and commercial banking.
The plan she laid out Thursday stopped short of such reforms while adding teeth to provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that would give regulators the power to force the largest banks to reorganize if their potential failure could risk damaging the economy.
The anti-Wall Street mantle of Democrats who tried to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren into the race has instead been carried by Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose success in primary polls has heightened scrutiny of Hillary Clinton’s ties to the financial industry.
In May, Sanders introduced a bill to break up the nation’s eight largest banks and bar them from ever seeking a federal bailout in the event of a second economic meltdown.
Sanders’ bill would have gutted Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo.
Five of those banks have donated at least $100,000 and as much as $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, and a sixth bank, Wells Fargo, has given a smaller contribution to the charity.
Over the course of her Senate career, Hillary Clinton enjoyed enormous support from the nation’s biggest banks. Four of her top five donors were on Sanders’ list: Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
At least 20 of the bundlers who have racked up $100,000 or more for her 2016 campaign — a group of donors known as “Hillblazers” — have ties to Wall Street.
Executives with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase are among her top campaign donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Firms such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Soros Fund Management appear on the list of donors for Priorities USA Action, a super political action committee supporting Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The State Department documents published Wednesday by the conservative nonprofit Judicial Watch show Bill Clinton was compensated generously for speeches before a variety of financial firms while his wife served as secretary of state.
Judicial Watch obtained the documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
Under an agreement between the White House and the Clintons that was hammered out before Hillary Clinton was confirmed, the former president’s staff had to seek clearance for every paid speech Bill Clinton gave to ensure there were no conflicts of interest at play.
Internal records show Bill Clinton netted huge speaking fees from financial firms like J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Sweden’s ABG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Banco Itau in Brazil, Vista Equity Partners, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard Group, Canada’s Imperial Bank of Commerce, TD Financial Group and SAGIA, a Saudi investment firm. The international events have raised additional questions about whether Bill Clinton’s involvement could have posed a conflict of interest to his wife, the nation’s chief diplomat.
State Department ethics officials expressed concerns in May 2011 about a handful of Bill Clinton’s 52 paid speaking engagements from the previous year for which they had no “paper trail” to verify whether he sought the agency’s approval.
One such event included a $325,000 speech to Barclays Capital, a major financial firm, in Singapore.
Bill Clinton has continued to earn millions since his wife left the State Department.
For instance, he pocketed $500,000 for a speech for Bank of America in March of last year.
Hillary Clinton herself has accepted generous speaking fees from powerful financial firms. For example, she netted more than $200,000 for a speech on behalf of Deutsche Bank in Oct. of last year, according to her latest financial disclosure.
Her ties to Wall Street continue to provide fodder to her Democratic opponents, with both Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley criticizing her plan Thursday for being too soft on the financial sector.
