The AP’s turn is done and the latest spin of the “create a fake Clinton scandal” media chore wheel has landed on Politico. In a headline that Hillary Clinton’s press secretary has described as “egregiously false,” Politico implies that the private email server hosting her email was paid for with taxpayer money. If you read on (and on and on), though, you find that the headline is talking about a different email server and the article is trying to create scandal out of nothing.
According to the story’s opening paragraphs, though “the investigation does not reveal anything illegal”:
Taxpayer cash was used to buy IT equipment — including servers — housed at the Clinton Foundation, and also to supplement the pay and benefits of several aides now at the center of the email and cash-for-access scandals dogging Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Sounds scandalous, right? Mission accomplished for Politico, then. You have to read another 20 or so paragraphs to get to the explanation of what these arrangements actually entailed. As an ex-president, Clinton gets $96,600 for staffing:
According to several people familiar with the former president’s operation, the rationale behind the interwoven payrolls is that they allow for a small team to assist Clinton in a variety of settings without having to do logistically complicated hockey-like line changes. In a given day, Clinton might deliver a paid private speech (during which time his employees’ salaries could be paid by the executive services corporation) and a public speech in his capacity as a former president (during which his staff could be paid by the GSA funds). And he could attend events for the foundation (where staff time would be paid by the foundation) as well as his wife’s presidential campaign (staff time would be paid by the campaign). [...]
George H. W. Bush has four people on his taxpayer-funded staff, while Bill Clinton has 10, which has been roughly his staffing level for most of his post-presidency, according to the GSA documents. That means that each earned about $9,600 a year — far from a living wage in Manhattan, where both the Clinton Foundation and Clinton’s personal office are located.
(There are not many places in the United States where $9,600 is a living wage.)
For similar reasons and under similar arrangements, the government bought some tech equipment for Clinton’s personal office as a former president, but foundation staff had access to it to coordinate between his activities in his multiple capacities. The General Services Administration in each case had to sign off on the expenditure really being for Clinton’s personal office and not for the foundation.
In short, Bill Clinton used the money available to former presidents to cover his expenses as a former president. Rather than having two separate staffs, he has one staff and pays them from government money when they do government work. It’s a legal arrangement subject to GSA oversight.
In really extra short, Politico went looking for a Clinton scandal, failed to find one, and decided to write it up as if there was a real scandal.