BOSTON GLOBE: Clinton’s e-mail ‘scandals’ are pure fiction

Clinton’s e-mail ‘scandals’ are pure fiction

I’m fairly sure that when William Shakespeare penned the phrase “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” he did not have in mind the constant cycle of scandals that envelop Bill and Hillary Clinton. But the phrase easily applies.

When it comes to the Clintons, the most mundane actions can be raised to the specter of national outrage, because of the appearance, but not actual incident, of impropriety.


Take, for example, the imbroglio over newly released e-mails regarding interactions between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department when Clinton was secretary of state. These exchanges, primarily between Clinton’s assistant Huma Abedin and Clinton Foundation top honcho Doug Band, have become Exhibit A in efforts to brand Clinton as a corrupt figure and the Foundation as a pay-for-play operation. The evidence, however, speaks to a different reality.

In 2009, Band reached out to Abedin and asked if she could help put a Nigerian businessman of Lebanese descent named Gilbert Chagoury – who had donated to the Clinton Foundation — in touch with “the substance person re: Lebanon.” Chagoury apparently wanted to pass along information about upcoming elections in Lebanon. Considering that State Department diplomats glean information and intelligence from civil society leaders, activists, and business people on a regular basis there’s nothing particularly untoward about the ask. But because Chagoury is a Clinton donor, there’s a scent of scandal.

So what happened? Abedin told Band she’d reach out to Jeffrey Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs at the time. Yet, according to a Washington Post article, Feltman says he never met or spoke to Chagoury, and “No one ever told me he was seeking me out.

So: Clinton Foundation asks for help with donor, and doesn’t get it.


Way more:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/08/23/clinton-mail-scandals-are-pure-fiction/ryXZoEeqANOPSiL7O33QuJ/story.html
https://www.charitywatch.org/ratings-and-metrics/bill-hillary-chelsea-clinton-foundation/478