Tag Archives: Bill Clinton

FBI Informant: Russia Directed Millions to US to Ensure “Affirmative Decisions” on Uranium One

Washington, D.C. — According to a written statement to three congressional committees, an FBI informant associated with the Uranium One deal alleged that the Russian government sent millions of dollars to the United States with the expectation the funds would bolster former president Bill Clinton’s Clinton Global Initiative, and that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would oversee a “reset” in the relationship between the U.S. and Russia.

The Hill reports that FBI informant Douglas Campbell told the committees that he had been informed by Russian nuclear executives that Russia had hired US lobbying firm APCO Worldwide due to their “position to influence the Obama administration, and more specifically Hillary Clinton.”

Campbell said in the statement, which was obtained by The Hill, that Russian nuclear officials “told me at various times that they expected APCO to apply a portion of the $3 million annual lobbying fee it was receiving from the Russians to provide in-kind support for the Clintons’ Global Initiative.”

“The contract called for four payments of $750,000 over twelve months. APCO was expected to give assistance free of charge to the Clinton Global Initiative as part of their effort to create a favorable environment to ensure the Obama administration made affirmative decisions on everything from Uranium One to the U.S.-Russia Civilian Nuclear Cooperation agreement.”

An APCO official denied that there was any connection between its work for Russia and the Clinton Global Initiative, claiming that any assertions of misconduct were “false and unfounded.”

“APCO Worldwide’s activities involving client work on behalf of Tenex and The Clinton Global Initiative were totally separate and unconnected in any way,” APCO told The Hill in a statement. “All actions on these two unconnected activities were appropriate, publicly documented from the outset and consistent with regulations and the law. Any assertion otherwise is false and unfounded.”

[RELATED: Senate Memo Claims Clinton Allies Were “Feeding” Info to State Dept., Christopher Steele]

Democrats have turned Campbell’s testimony into a partisan affair, calling the FBI informant’s credibility into question, despite the bureau paying him $50,000 for his work with the agency.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, dismissed Campbell’s testimony as a distraction from the special prosecutor’s “Russian collusion” investigation, which some have claimed began as a strategy formed by the Clinton campaign staff to explain Clinton’s stunning election loss to Trump.

“Just yesterday the committee made clear that this secret informant charade was just that, a charade. Along with the widely debunked text-message-gate and Nunes’ embarrassing memo episode, we have a trifecta of GOP-manufactured scandals designed to distract from their own President’s problems and the threat to democracy he poses,” Merrill said.

A Clinton campaign post-election tell-all, Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaignclaimed that Clinton blamed Russian interference for her election loss to Donald Trump “within twenty-four hours of her concession speech”:

“That strategy had been set within twenty-four hours of her concession speech. Mook and Podesta assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.”

Despite attempts from Democrats to call Campbell’s credibility into question, Republicans are now looking at expanding the investigation into Russian corruption, in relation to the Obama administration and the Uranium One deal, based partially on Campbell’s testimony.

“My FBI handlers praised my work. They told me on various occasions that details from the undercover probe had been briefed directly to FBI top officials. On two occasions my handlers were particularly excited, claiming that my undercover work had been briefed to President Obama as part of his daily presidential briefing,” Campbell wrote.

According to reporting from The Hill:

“Campbell, whose work as an informant was first disclosed in a series of stories published last fall by The Hill, helped the FBI gather evidence as early as 2009 that the Russian nuclear industry was engaged in a kickback, bribery and racketeering scheme on U.S. soil. The criminal scheme, among other things, compromised the U.S. trucking firm that had the sensitive job of transporting uranium around America, Campbell testified.

Campbell says he provided the FBI the evidence of wrongdoing months before the Obama administration approved a series of favorable decisions that enriched Rosatom, including the CFIUS decision. 

The Hill’s stories last fall prompted the Justice Department to take the rare step of freeing Campbell from his nondisclosure agreement as an intelligence asset so he could testify to Congress about what he witnessed inside Russia’s nuclear industry.

Campbell gave the congressional committees documents he said he provided to his FBI handlers in 2010 showing that the Russian and American executives implicated in the Tenex bribery scheme specifically asked him to try to help get the Uranium One deal approved by the Obama administration.”

Campbell’s testimony is of interest to congressional Republicans focused on potential indiscretion in the Obama administration’s approval of the Uranium One deal. The agreement gave Russian mining giant Rosatom control of nearly 20 percent of America’s uranium mining capacity, despite the fact that the United States imports more than 90 percent of the uranium used in its nuclear reactors, according to U.S. government figures from 2016.

Video: Bill Clinton Confronted at Campaign Rally Over Benghazi

During a campaign rally for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in South Carolina on Friday, former President Bill Clinton engaged in a heated argument with a man, claiming to be a Marine, who confronted Clinton over the 2012 Benghazi attacks which occurred while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.

A video shows a man, identifying himself as a Marine, asking Clinton at first to address the VA. “I’m anxious to get to the VA, you covering that, I’m not sure so hopefully you can get to it.”

“I am,” Clinton interjected.

The man went on, “We have loved ones that we want to hear about and we care about, and I’ve met with many of these Gold Star parents and families so I’ve seen them-“

“What do you think should be done with the VA?” Clinton interrupted.

The man then suddenly shifted the topic to Benghazi: “The thing is, we had four lives in Benghazi killed and your wife tried to cover it up,” he said, which drew a negative response from the crowd.

The man continued to speak for several more seconds before Clinton asked to respond. “Can I answer? Are you going to let me answer?” Clinton asked. “This is America, I get to answer. I heard your speech. They heard your speech. You listen to me now,” Clinton said.

The man continued to speak, his voice growing louder, as Clinton told the man, “I’m not your commander in chief anymore but if I were, I’d tell you to be more polite. Sit down.”

“And I wouldn’t listen,” the man shot back. “I would just raise my voice.”

The video then shows deputies approaching the man to remove him from the building. As the man was taken out of the building, Clinton said, “Do you have the courage to listen to my answer? Don’t throw him out. If you’ll shut up to listen to my answer, I’ll answer.”

Clinton then addressed the crowd: “Can I just say something? That’s what’s wrong. his mind has been poisoned by lies and he won’t listen.”

A woman can be heard in the video shouting, “Hillary lied over four coffins! Four coffins! She lied! And she lied to those families! So all those families are liars? All those families are liars? I want to know, I want to know. Did she lie?”

The video shows the crowd becoming increasingly noisy and unsettled as Clinton and the woman continued to argue before the woman was also removed from the building by deputies.

According to local news station WSAV3, Clinton’s response was that his wife was not responsible for the attacks in Benghazi. Clinton later spoke to the crowd to address the issue. “The ambassador of Libya was a personal friend of Hillary’s. You can imagine how she feels when people make these charges,” said Clinton. “And she, believe me, lost a lot of sleep over it.”

According to The State newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina, Clinton said that Republicans have attempted to “politicize the deaths of brave Americans because (they) want to win this next election.”

Clinton also reportedly claimed that his wife “has never once played politics with the lives of the men and women in uniform.”

The man who confronted Clinton did not identify himself to The State beyond being a “Marine Sergeant,” and told the paper that he “wanted answers, and I wanted to make my point.”

“The deputies started coming over, so obviously my point wasn’t able to be made,” he noted.

Conflict of Interest? Bill Clinton Serves on Presidential Debate Commission

As the 2016 presidential election draws nearer, questions are being raised about Bill Clinton’s role as an honorary co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, a Republican-and-Democrat controlled board that determines the rules and particulars of U.S. general election presidential debates.

According to The Daily Caller, Bill Clinton serves as an honorary co-chair for the organization along with former President Jimmy Carter. The CPD also lists deceased former Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford as honorary co-chairs.

It is unclear, however, how Carter and Clinton function in these roles,” wrote reporter Kerry Picket. “Additionally, considering Jeb Bush’s run for the presidency, if it is an issue of simply lending one’s name to a board and not participating in any process, it is unknown why both former presidents George W. Bush and his father George H.W. Bush are not included as honorary chairs,” she added.

Hot Air notes that CPD chairman Michael D. McCurry served as press secretary during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

[RELATED: DONEGAN: If GOP Debate Stage Can Fit 11, Let Third Parties In General Election Debates]

If current Democratic Party presidential primary frontrunner Hillary Clinton ends up winning her party’s nomination, Bill Clinton and Michael McCurry’s roles on the board governing U.S. general election presidential debates could potentially pose a conflict of interest.

The Commission on Presidential Debates recently sparked controversy when it announced that despite the rise of independent voters as a leading portion of the U.S. electorate, it would not change the 15 percent minimum polling rule that effectively blocks most serious third-party candidates who appear on enough ballots to win the presidency from participating in general election presidential debates.

[RELATED: Pollsters Criticize Use of Polling Minimums to Exclude Candidates from Debates]

The Truth in Media Project recently released a Consider This video highlighting the fact that independent voters now outnumber Republicans and Democrats. Watch it in the below-embedded video player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf26DKntwzM

ABC News Chief Anchor Admits Donating $75,000 To Clinton Foundation

On Friday, ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos apologized for failing to disclose $75,000 in personal donations he has made to the Clinton Foundation over the last three years:

[pull_quote_center]”Over the last several years, I have made substantial donations to dozens of charities, including the Clinton Global Foundation. Those donations were a matter of public record, but I should have made additional disclosures on air when we covered the Foundation, and I now believe that directing personal donations to that foundation was a mistake. Even though I made them strictly to support work done to stop the spread of AIDs, to help children, and protect the environment in poor countries, I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict. I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.”[/pull_quote_center]

While the donations made by Stephanopoulos are included in the public records on the Clinton Foundation’s website, questions were initially raised on Thursday, by the Washington Free Beacon, noting that he had not “previously disclosed it to ABC viewers,” even though he took part in “on-air discussions about the Clinton Foundation and its controversial relationship with foreign donors.

Politico noted that Stephanopoulos, who is currently the chief anchor and political correspondent for ABC News, the co-anchor of Good Morning America and host of This Week on ABC, previously served as the communications director for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, and was the communications director and senior adviser for policy and strategy to Clinton during his presidency.

ABC News released a statement ultimately supporting Stephanopoulos, while admitting that he should have been more transparent about his donations, when covering stories related to the Foundation:

[pull_quote_center]”As George has said, he made charitable donations to the Foundation to support a cause he cares about deeply and believed his contributions were a matter of public record. He should have taken the extra step to notify us and our viewers during the recent news reports about the Foundation. He’s admitted to an honest mistake and apologized for that omission. We stand behind him.”[/pull_quote_center]

On Thursday, Stephanopoulos told Politico that he should not have donated money to the Clinton Foundation, and that as a result, he will not moderate ABC’s 2016 GOP Presidential debate in New Hampshire in February.

“I think I’ve shown that I can moderate debates fairly,” Stephanopoulos said. “That said, I know there have been questions made about moderating debates this year. I want to be sure I don’t deprive viewers of a good debate.”

2016 GOP Presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told the New York Times that Stephanopoulos’ close ties with the Clintons should disqualify him from moderating any of the 2016 presidential debates.

“It’s impossible to divorce yourself from that, even if you try,” Paul said. “I just think it’s really, really hard because he’s been there, so close to them, that there would be a conflict of interest if he tried to be a moderator of any sort.

Stephanopoulos is also under fire for his interview with Peter Schweizer on an episode of ABC’s This Week that aired on April 26. Schweizer is the author of the book “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” which looks at how foreign donations impacted Hillary Clinton’s decisions during her tenure as Secretary of State.

In his interview with Schweizer, Stephanopoulos claimed that ABC News had “done investigative work” and had ultimately “found no proof of any kind of direct action.” Stephanopoulos maintained that there was “no smoking gun,” and no evidence Clinton “changed the policy based on donations to the foundation.”

Following the announcement from HarperCollins, that it would be making “7-8 factual corrections” to the e-book version of “Clinton Cash,” Schweizer told Bloomberg Politics that “the corrections are all minor,” and that he was “really quite stunned” by the revelation of Stephanopoulos’ donations.

Calling the donations a “massive breach of ethical standards,” Schweizer said, “He fairly noted my four months working as a speech writer for George W. Bush. But he didn’t disclose this?”

In addition to discussing the donations on This Week, Stephanopoulos addressed the subject during an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on April 28, where he said that people who give money to the Clinton Foundation are expecting a return.

Everybody also knows when those donors give that money… there’s a hope that that’s going to lead to something and that’s what you have to be careful of,” Stephanopoulos said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jLKXCLr40I

For more news related to the 2016 Presidential election, click here.

Julie Borowski: Here’s The One Question That I Want To Ask Hillary Clinton Supporters

Video by Julie Borowski, text by Annabelle Bamforth.

In her latest video, Julie Borowski asks viewers if Hillary Clinton supporters would be as excited for her campaign if she were a man. “Let’s pretend Hillary is now Harold,” Borowski says. “Would you hashtag be ready for Harold? Would you be excited about his policies and his career achievements? If you say no, you’re just supporting Hillary because of her gender… which is stupid.”

Borowski explains how she believes there are a plethora of reasons to oppose Hillary’s record and presidential campaign, and appearances and gender should not factor into one’s support or disapproval of a politician. Borowski also reminds viewers of Hillary’s “hawkish” foreign policy positions and her support for agencies that violate civil liberties including the NSA.

Fmr. President Clinton Connected To Billionaire Engulfed in “Sex Slave” and Underage Girl Scandal

Washington D.C.- It is a story of sex slaves, underage girls, murder, a billionaire, a prince and at least one former U.S. President. What has been the biggest scandal in the UK since World War II has now come to the U.S. and may involve former President Bill Clinton.

The story surrounds billionaire Jeffery Epstein who served time in 2008 for soliciting prostitution. That charge came as part of a plea deal. The story begins in 2005 when Epstein was investigated after a woman reported that he paid her 14 year-old daughter $300 dollars for sex. Since that initial claim, there have been over 40 women who have come forward with claims that Epstein is a sexual predator and that he not only abused them but shared these young girls with famous and powerful friends.

Flash forward to today and a lawsuit is underway in Palm Beach, Florida. In that lawsuit, multiple mentions of former President Bill Clinton who reportedly took multiple trips to Epstein’s private island called Little St. James, between 2002 and 2005.

According to testimony in the lawsuit, at least one woman on the compound was there unwillingly. She is referred to as Jane Doe 102.

According to the UK Daily Mail “She was forced to live as one of Epstein’s underage sex slaves for years and was forced to have sex with… politicians, businessmen, royalty, people working in academics, etc,.”

To be clear, in 2008 when the plead deal happened, Clinton cut off ties with Epstein. Or did he? According again to the Daily Mail, “The lawsuit claims that Clinton was friends with an unnamed woman who ‘kept images of naked underage children on her computer, helped to recruit underage children for Epstein… and photographed underage females in sexually explicit poses’.”

While he cut off ties with Epstein, this woman’s abuses apparently did not end their relationship as she was reportedly one of the 400 guests at Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding.

So what did Bill Clinton know? What exactly was he a part of? According to The Smoking Gun, “As part of a civil suit filed against Epstein by several of his victims, lawyers for the women floated the possibility of subpoenaing Clinton since he “might well be a source of relevant information” about Epstein’s activities. While Clinton was never deposed, lawyers obtained Epstein’s computerized phone directory, which included “e-mail addresses for Clinton along with 21 phone numbers for him, including those for his assistant (Doug Band),” according to a court filing.”

In the video above Ben Swann interviews several people about the Clinton connection, the connection of Prince Andrew the Duke of York and why he has now been dragged into this case and reveals that famous U.S. attorney Alan Dershowitz is now being accused of having sex with underage girls provided by Epstein as well. Watch the video above for more details.

Bill Clinton Speaking About Osama bin Laden in 2001: “I Could Have Gotten Him, I Could Have Killed Him”

Australian news channel Sky News released an audio clip late Wednesday of former president Bill Clinton speaking at a business meeting in Melbourne on September 10th, 2001. In the Sky News clip shown, there is a small portion of audio in which Clinton claimed that he had the chance to kill Osama bin Laden.

Clinton then revealed that he ultimately decided not to go after bin Laden at that time because of the surrounding circumstances; Clinton said he would have had to destroy a small town full of innocent civilians.

“He’s [bin Laden] a very smart guy. I spent a lot of time thinking about him. And I nearly got him once,” Clinton said. “And I could have killed him, but I would have to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan and kill 300 innocent women and children, and then I would have been no better than him. And so I just didn’t do it.”

That short audio clip is currently the only released segment of the meeting where Clinton was speaking. It was made public by Michael Kroger, the former head of Australia’s Liberal Party who has been reported to be the individual who recorded it.

LOTFI: Fox News one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest donors for better part of two decades

To many, it seems contrary to intuition that Fox News could be one of the Clinton family’s largest donors for the better part of two decades. Check your intuition at the door- it’s true. According to Federal Election Commission and Center for Responsive Politics data, 21st Century Fox News Corp. has donated more than $3 million to Clinton family accounts. Overall, this lands Fox as the Clinton family’s 9th largest donor over the course of the family’s political involvement.

P- Clinton Fox News Donations

Should it really infuriate the conservative viewership of Fox News that the company also donates to Democrats? After all, are political parties not constantly blaming media outlets for being biased? What would it say about the state of media in America if companies and their journalists only donated to one specific party? More troubling, what does it say about Americans that some are upset over the fact that Fox News and its employees are donating to Democrats in addition to Republicans? Do we really want our media to be non-bias, or do we simply want it to follow our own bias?

Follow Michael Lotfi On Facebook & Twitter.

Bill Clinton Tries To Dismiss Rand Paul’s “Disqualified for President” Comment About Hillary

On NBC’s Meet the Press this morning, the host David Gregory held a town hall where he asked former United States President Bill Clinton questions that covered a number of political topics. When David Gregory asked Bill Clinton about Rand Paul’s recent comment regarding his reasoning for why Hillary Clinton is disqualified to be President, Bill Clinton defended his wife by telling the audience that Rand Paul’s comment shouldn’t be taken seriously because Republicans were never outraged when American personnel were killed during George W. Bush’s time as President.

Is Bill Clinton correct or should Rand Paul’s comment be taken seriously? Please tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

David Gregory: One of the issues about America’s role in the world is if we pursue a lighter footprint going into places intervening then that which we leave behind can become chaotic and so it becomes a question of what responsibility does the United States have to be part of that future of a country. This goes to Iraq, I’ve always believed that is the larger question about Benghazi, but you understand the political question about Bengahazi in many ways some have tried to make it about Secretary Clinton and her tenure. Rand Paul on the program, he may run for President in 2016, called it disqualifying for Secretary Clinton. Do you have a response for that?

Clinton: Well, let’s go back to the first question because it’s serious. That’s not a serious comment and that isn’t a sort of serious question. Rand Paul, when ten different instances occurred when President Bush was in office where American diplomatic personnel were killed around the world, how many outraged Republican members of Congress were there? Zero.