A longtime Bill Clinton aide pushed back against the idea of creating “too many rules” concerning conflicts of interest at the Clinton Foundation because they would create “serious conflicts” for the former president.
Justin Cooper, the aide, expressed that view in a Nov. 17, 2011 email released on Friday by WikiLeaks.
“I think there WJC may have some real serious conflicts if we start to make too many rules,” Cooper wrote to a group that included Clinton adviser Doug Band, then-Clinton Foundation adviser John Podesta and Cheryl Mills. “It may be time to update some procedures but we can not ignore the nexus of WJC’s life.”
Cooper’s email was in response to one from Band in which the former Clinton “body man” complained about double standards regarding conflicts of interest. He was upset that he had to sign on to a conflict of interest policy that was being pushed by Chelsea Clinton. The former first daughter took a more active role in her family’s foundation that year and was pushing to “professionalize” the charity.
“I signed a conflict of interest policy as a board member of [the Clinton Global Initative],” Band wrote.
“Oddly, wjc does not have to sign such a document even though he is personally paid by 3 [Clinton Global Initiative] sponsors, gets many expensive gifts from them, some that are at home etc,” he continued. “I could add 500 different examples of things like this.”
“I get the sense that they are trying to put some sort of wrong doing on me after the audit as a crutch to change things.”
Cooper and Band opposed Chelsea Clinton’s reforms. The pair had at that time just formed a consulting group called Teneo Strategies. The firm counted several Clinton Foundation donors as clients.
Cooper has served as a personal aide to Clinton for years. He has held several overlapping roles with Clinton’s presidential office and the Clinton Foundation. Cooper also helped set up and maintain the private email server Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state. He was interviewed by the FBI several times in connection with the email scandal.