Answer by Ian Marshall:
Is Hillary Clinton corrupt in any way?I was A2A on this, and I wasn’t going to answer, because this is the type of question that you either put small effort into and then everyone piles on like you have no basis for your opinion; or you put huge effort into, and the people who should read and consider what you’ve written just ignore you. But I’ve said some tough stuff about Hillary on Quora, so I gathered the strength to further what I’ve posted elsewhere …..
My answer:
Look, there’s a thousand ways to allege corruption, and corruption exists, to my mind, on a spectrum.
Politicians get free coffee all the time. Is this corruption? Clearly, NO. When politicians are on “the rubber chicken circuit” giving speeches, they often get free meals. Is this corruption? Some purists might say so, but again I think NO.
A little further out on the spectrum: Once upon a time in American politics, not that long ago, a lobbyist named Jack Abramoff went to jail in a corruption scandal for, among many other things, being the ‘go to guy’ on Capital Hill for free tickets to sporting events, 'complimentary’ theater & ballet seats, and the like; this was once considered an unacceptable level of “corruption” in Washington.
At the far end of the spectrum are Third-World leaders dropping $5M USD in Paris on a shopping trip, or 'Communist Party officials’, whose salary is ~$25,000 USD per year, whose children, themselves having never held a job, living abroad in $25M USD houses; these types of people are undeniably corrupt.
Corruption is a 'scale thing’.
American politics, by international standards, is fairly 'clean’ with regards to corruption.
However, measured only against American standards, against other American politicians …
I consider Hillary Clinton to be one of the most corrupt American politicians of this generation, and I have said elsewhere on Quora that: she is the crookedest politician to seek the Presidency in a generation.
I say she’s crooked for a multitude of reasons:
- her constant scheming and 'triangulations’ on policy stances and her positions – she’s changed essentially every position she holds now vs her run in 2008 vs her run for Senate, you can’t believe a word she says she’s flip-flopped on so much (gay rights, the TPP, Keystone, the Iraq war, American involvement abroad, etc, etc - one could go on and on here), but these are all only changes in her policy positions.
- There’s an extensive amount of “economy with the truth” surrounding her; she’s very adept with obfuscation, she never quite seems to come clean about anything; every answer she offers about tough questions regarding her ethics seems to only raise additional questions. (Take here her present email scandal (which is a book length scandal in itself), the Benghazi hearings, etc, etc, if you want to go further back: lying about being under fire in Bosnia, all the smear stuff related to Bill’s various women, the travel-gate stuff, Whitewater, the Commodity futures scandal, etc, etc), but these are not financial wrongdoings, and don’t directly benefit her. Hillary’s penchant for lying, or artfully telling quarter-truths, is not corruption in many people’s opinions.
- However … there’s the Clinton Family Foundation, which is a whole other gargantuan ball of wax.
The Clinton Foundation, to my mind, is quite simply the biggest cesspool of corruption and illegality in modern American politics. There’s nothing else like it in size and scope in modern American federal politics. The Foundation has collected, I believe, about $2B (Yes, that’s a B, as in Billion!) since inception, and pulls in $100M+ per year. All of this is being done under the designation of it being “a charity”. But apparently they are paying out less than 15% of the gross revenue in actual benefits. Meanwhile they are keeping people on staff, having administrative support, doing polling on issues, locating and identifying “like-minded Americans”, shuttling the Clintons themselves around the world, and actually paying the Clinton’s salaries – all tax free. The Foundation has been a full-time marketing mechanism, and non-stop proto-campaign for the Clintons for years.
And the Clinton’s themselves - in their personal, individual tax situations - have amassed tens of millions personally.
And the Clintons are both drawing salaries and bonuses from the Foundation; but also making donations to the Foundation, to reduce their personal taxes!
And who exactly is giving all this money? Well, we don’t actually know, because it’s largely secret! But we do know that the Chinese, the Russians, the Indonesians, the Saudis, and many other foreign and domestic business interests, and other foreign governments have donated many, many millions to the Foundation – lots of 'less than savory’ people have given lots of money.
[Digression: And if this foreign money had been given directly to the Clintons, or to the Presidential campaign, it would be undeniably illegal. And the donations would also then be non-secret! But when money’s given to the Foundation, its’ all hush-hush and A-OK. … Also, yet another example where Hillary’s not actually broken the law, yet it all clearly stinks morally; as usual, Hillary inadvertently shows, yet again, that she knows “what’s legal”, but doesn’t understand “what’s right”.]
If the Clinton Foundation wants to, for example, advance the cause of “female education worldwide”, I think it’s a fair question to ask: “Why exactly would the Saudis being giving money for this?”
And even further: Why did the amount of money flowing into the Foundation, and Bill’s speaking fees double, and triple, while Hillary was the Secretary of State? And why does there seem to be a coincidence between people, businesses, and governments giving the Foundation money and getting something from the State Department?
Now, many will ask: “What proof do you have of all of this?” And my answer, honestly, is: “Surprisingly little actual proof.” Some will immediately dismiss the above claims on this admission alone. But really, it’s not that simple …
Think of things this way: If proof did actually exist, WHERE would it exist?
It would exist in the financial records, it would exist in the email traffic of the Clinton Foundation!
…. But the Clinton Family Foundation records are all secret!!!
The Clinton’s refuse to disclose them! Yes, they’re carrying on a charity, supposedly doing good and noble things for the world, but it’s a secret what they’re collecting, from whom, how much, when, who’s getting the money, where it’s being spent … everything … it’s all a secret!!!
The Foundation does not even have an accurate tax filing on record with the IRS for the past two years!
Proof would likewise exist in the nexus of the email records of the Foundation itself, plus Hillary’s emails from her time at the State Department. If one had both sets of email records, they could be searched for improprieties; or, even better still, cross-referenced …
See, if Hillary did something at State, in return for an official act on someone’s behalf, for consideration (ie a donation to the Foundation); that’s “honest services fraud”, the very definition of corruption.
Except that the Foundation wont release its correspondence.
And Hillary only let her State emails come into the public record when she was forced to disclose them by a Federal Judge!
But before she turned her State department emails over to the government, she deleted 30,000+ emails, which she claimed were “personal”.
Hillary Clinton has quite literally created a situation whereby nobody can look into her affairs, even though she’s now a Presidential candidate, and was formerly a paid officer of the US government, and her family’s running “a charity”.
Tens of millions are being raised and spent, but nobody’s allowed to know how, or why, or where the money came from, or what they got for it – everything’s done on Hillary’s word that it’s all legit.
Yes, yes, no other politician is being held to the standard Hillary is …
But then again, no other politician has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign governments and shady overseas businesses,
No other Presidential candidate had to have their official records forcibly disclosed by a Federal Judge,
No other modern politician that I know of deleted 30,000+ emails when asked about her ethics.
Nobody can prove Hillary’s crooked because Hillary herself created a whole system of “plausible deniability” to prevent anyone looking into her affairs.
The logic bomb that establishes the whole case, to my mind, is simply and only this:
If Hillary’s done nothing wrong, if she’s legit, if she’s honest, if she’s proud of what her 'charity’ is doing, if she did a good job at State …
******* then simply DISCLOSE !!!!!! *******
Put all the records into the public realm, and show the world what she’s done! Release her emails from State. “Re-Find” the USB drive that’s likely got the 30,000+ emails that she deleted. If it’s all really about her yoga schedule, nobody will care. Release the email and financial records of the Foundation. If they’re 'saving the world’, as they claim, then what have they got to hide, Isn’t the Clinton Foundation supposed to show how “good” the Clintons are? Why wouldn’t they be happy for everyone to know?
The fact that she refuses to disclose says it all.
Hillary will do anything to become President, except the honest thing!; which is come clean about everything, by disclosing! She could have turned her State emails over long before the judge forced her. She could “find” the deleted 30,000+ emails and disclose these with a phone call. The Clinton Foundation could turn over its records with a single morning’s efforts. She’ll do anything, except the Right thing.
When Marco Rubio got caught shuffling a few thousand dollars around on his credit cards - one of which was his “government-issued work visa” - so he could pay his bills on time; he was widely criticized, and this was held up as evidence of his inability to understand and manage money, and therefore a disqualifying trait for a President.
When Ted Cruz was revealed to have received a $1M loan - not a donation, just a loan, which he had to repay - when he got a loan from Goldman Sachs, for his Senate campaign, this was evidence of the 'hidden, nefarious forces driving his candidacy’.
Nobody sued Martin O'Malley to find out about his back taxes, or how his emails went missing.
Nobody wonders how Bernie Sanders came into $180,000 in his 401K. Bernie’s proud of telling people the positions he took 20 years ago; He’ll gladly dig up the old records. Nobody’s in Court trying to gain access to Bernie’s emails. No Judge has reprimanded Bernie for his obfuscations. Nobody wants to know why Bernie’s campaign staff were also on the government payroll, and a private Foundation’s payroll, simultaneously.
Yet when Arabs arrive, and men whispering in Russian, and Chinese, or people from islands in the Indonesian archipelago that 99.995% of Americans couldn’t even find on a map, show up at the Clinton Foundation, bearing TENS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS, this is supposed to be business as usual? And whenever anyone asks questions, Hillary’s own people scream “witch hunt” and “She’s being attacked because she’s a woman.” PLEASE. And then when the 'serious press’ asks questions, she says it’s a “settled matter”, and “old news”, and that “she’s not going to dignify these types of questions”? PLEASE.
They are raising $8-12M per month at the Clinton Foundation; well more than $100M per year; and they’ve been doing it for many years. This absolutely, totally dwarfs anything else in American political life.
The Clinton Foundation could pay off Ted Cruz’s Senate loan with what they bag in just 3 days! Poor Marco Rubio’s whole personal financial life could be righted with the change in the Clinton’s sofa. Bernie Sanders’ entire net-worth-to-date is a few hours donations at the Clinton Foundation. I can’t emphasize this enough: The scale here is unbelievable.
This whole email thing is being investigated by the FBI. Multiple groups are suing her in Federal Court, trying to get her records opened. The IRS is wondering why they can’t have an accurate filing from the Clinton Foundation for two years running. Somewhere, out on the web, are the corresponding 'send/receive other-half’ of the 30,000+ emails Hillary deleted — these matters are all exceedingly complex, and are going to take a long, long time to unravel.
This whole situation was, after all, purposefully designed by the Clintons to create an opaque situation, and to hide their secrets …
But if and when it all comes to light, I’m ever more strongly convinced of the ultimate verdict …
I’m not 'anon’ on this post, so mark my words !!!!! ….. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again …
Hillary Clinton is the CROOKEDEST politician to seek the Presidency in at least a generation.
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