Politics

WikiLeaks: Qatar Gave Clinton Foundation A Million Dollar Check For Bill’s Birthday

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Kevin Daley Supreme Court correspondent
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New emails released by WikiLeaks in connection with its dump of John Podesta’s email server indicate that Qatar, an Islamist state in the Persian gulf, made a $1 million donation to the Clinton Foundation for President Bill Clinton’s birthday.

The email indicates foundation officials also met with representatives from Brazil, Peru, Malawi and Rwanda to discuss donations and philanthropic strategies for the Foundation.

“[Qatar] Would like to see WJC ‘for five minutes’ in NYC, to present $1 million check that Qatar promised for WJC’s birthday in 2011,” Ami Desai, director of foreign policy for the Clinton Foundation, wrote in 2012.

The email was sent to a number of Clinton aides, including Doug Band.

In another email two years later, Hillary Clinton noted that Qatar aides and abets the Islamic State and Sunni terrorist groups.

“While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” Clinton wrote(RELATED: Hillary In Leaked Email: Saudi Arabia And Qatar Are Funding ISIS)

The thread also indicates that Qatar allocated $20 million for development in Haiti, after a massive earthquake devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation and left nearly a quarter million dead. Desai indicated the Qataris “would welcome our suggestions” as regards investment priorities.

The foundation’s activities in Haiti have been the subject of press scrutiny in recent days.

Haitian civil rights activist Ézili Dantò criticized what he describes as a “pay to play” environment in Haiti facilitated by the Clinton Foundation.

“I think when you look at both the State Department and the Clinton Foundation in Haiti, that line was pretty faint between the two,” Jake Johnston, analyst at the nonpartisan Center for Economic and Policy Research, said, according to ABC News. “You had a lot of coordination and connection between the two, obviously. And I think that raises significant questions about how they were both operating.”

The email thread also indicates foundation officials attempted to schedule a meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. “I pitched CGI, again, and will continue to do so,” Desai wrote.

Rouseff has since been impeached for corruption, though the allegations concerning her administration had not surfaced during the time the email was written.

U.S. intelligence officials have definitively linked WikiLeaks to actors near the Russian government. They say the Podesta hack is likely part of a scheme to interfere in the presidential election.

(Editor’s note: This post has been updated after the original misattributed a quote to Jake Johnston)

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