Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has “little consideration for ethics,” according to Robby Mook, her campaign manager.
Mook’s comment was included in a devastating list he compiled of problems associated with Clinton’s decision to appoint a longtime friend to her campaign after he helped her raise $72 million for the U.S. Expo at the 2010 Shanghai World’s Fair.
The comment — “When soliciting contributions, Clinton had little consideration for ethics” — appeared in an attachment to a March 11, 2015, email made public Sunday by WikiLeaks in its latest release of materials hacked from Clinton national campaign chairman John Podesta’s Gmail account.
Mook questioned the appointment of Jose Villarreal as an officer in the campaign, telling Podesta that he “found a potential flag about Jose Villarreal” and that “it looks like he’s snared up in the conflict of interest stuff at State” and “there’s a real argument here that he was at the nexus of foundation/state issues.”
Villarreal was Clinton’s choice to serve as commissioner general of the U.S. Expo, which was supposed to showcase American values at the Shanghai event. But Mook’s 10-page attachment to the Podesta email highlighted how Clinton mixed corporate donations to the U.S. Expo with favorable Department of State treatment.
Such actions are reportedly at the heart of a continuing multi-city FBI political corruption investigation that began in February of this year. That FBI probe is independent of the email investigation Director James Comey appeared Sunday to have closed down a second time. (RELATED: ‘Now Five FBI Field Offices Are Probing Clinton Charity, Adding Fuel To The Fire‘)
“When soliciting contributions, Clinton had little consideration for ethics, as the corporations who were featured in Shanghai also contributed to her foundation and received accolades from the State Department,” began Mook’s attachment. “For example, some of the biggest contributors to Shanghai, including Proctor & Gamble, Boeing, and General Electric, all received favorable treatment from the State Department.”
Mook cited a Bloomberg News article that reported Clinton admitted in her book “Hard Choices” that she jetted around the world on behalf of major American corporations.
“Clinton writes that she jetted to foreign capitals as advocate-in-chief for American companies such as General Electric Co. (GE), Boeing Co. (BA), and FedEx Corp. (FDX) to help them close deals that would translate into U.S. jobs,” Bloomberg News reported.
Nine of the top 10 contributors to the U.S. Expo also were Clinton Foundation donors, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group. The top 10 donations from the 66 corporate donors amounted to $10.5 million.
Clinton has been particularly close to Boeing and in November, 2009 during her “reset” with Russia, she pressed Russia to sign a multi-billion aircraft deal to buy Boeing aircraft. The Washington Post called her an “international saleswoman” making a “shameless pitch” in a story Mook cited.
Two days later, Boeing committed $2.25 million to the U.S. Expo, but to secure the contribution, the State Department had to “set aside ethics guidelines,” The Washington Post reported.
“Boeing had been included on a list of firms to be avoided [for Expo donations] due to its frequent reliance on the U.S. government for help negotiating overseas business and concern that a donation could be seen as an attempt to curry favor with American officials,” according to The Washington Post.
The Washington Post described Clinton as viewing the Boeing relationship as a “mutually beneficial relationship,” reporting that “the November 2009 episode was an indicator of a mutually beneficial relationship between one of the world’s major corporations and a potential future president.” Boeing has pledged up to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.
Clinton was called GE’s “Advocate-in-Chief” as secretary of state, according to another Washington Post article attached to the Mook document. She reportedly lobbied “Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika on behalf of GE, which was seeking a $2.5 billion contract to help build six natural gas plants in the Northern African nation,” according to a Bloomberg News story listed by Mook.
GE gave $5 million to the U.S. Expo and has donated up to $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. While FedEX donated $2 million to the U.S. Expo and gave up to $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Boeing and GE have repeatedly refused to release its emails between their top executives and Clinton.
Proctor & Gamble gave $3 million to the U.S. Expo and $4.2 million to the Clinton Foundation, and Clinton repaid P&G in 2011 with the Secretary’s Corporate Excellence Award.
Mook tried to dissuade Clinton from the Villarreal appointment, but Clinton ignored his advice and appointed Villarreal as a senior advisor and campaign treasurer. Villarreal was a bundler for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.
During the Clinton administration, Villarreal was deputy director of the White House Office personnel office and served as deputy campaign manager for President Clinton’s 1992 campaign.
“I’d question if we want him as an officer,” Mook tells Podesta in the email. “Again, sorry to be a pain on this, but I think it’s important.”
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