She's in a dead heat with Trump, loses to several Republicans in the polls, and can't seem to shake that pesky Bernie Sanders, but nevermind the bad news, it's time to score a win for Hillary: The nonpartisan watchdog group Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) named Hillary Clinton at the top of it's worst ethics violators for 2015!
According to Matthew G. Whitaker, executive director of FACT:
“Elected officials are sent to Washington to follow and uphold the law and so they need to be held to the highest standard of ethics. Even the appearance of impropriety can quickly erode public trust, and Mrs. Clinton is in a league of her own.” said Whitaker. “We will continue to vigorously hold the lantern over unethical behavior so that we have a government that serves the public’s interest, not the self-interests of leaders who think they are beyond reproach.”
FACT cites “overwhelming evidence” that Clinton abused her official position as secretary of state, and is calling for various federal investigations focused on Clinton's email scandal. According to FACT:
“Those emails remained hidden from the public until earlier this year when it was discovered that Secretary Clinton conducted government business on her private email server and a judge ultimately ordered that she turn over and the State Department release the emails.”
FACT says that according to some of those recently released communications, questions arose about whether Clinton gave special State Department access to a private mining company with ties to her son-in-law, investment banker and hedge fund manager Marc Mezvinsky. According to Whitaker:
“Her son-in-law received an email from a Goldman Sachs associate that had a representative invested in a company that had a business matter that the State Department is considering regarding deep sea mining. The business associate asked the son-in-law to forward an email. The son-in-law forwards it to Secretary of State Clinton and she forwards it to the State Department for folks to follow up on. Average everyday citizens don't get that kind of access or the treatment he received.”
Clinton's daughter Chelsea, who walked right into a high paying Wall Street job directly out of college, married Mezvinsky in 2010. This union has recently made Hillary an abuela. Mezvinsky is apparently a bad investor, losing millions on an incorrect assumption that Greece would have a quick economic recovery. That hasn't stopped investors from giving Clinton's son-in-law lots more play money, after all, according to the Free Beacon:
“But if you are a wealthy Democratic donor who places a high value on long-term political access to one of America's most powerful families, Eaglevale is the fund for you. Wall Street tycoons are clearly ready for Hillary and there are few better ways to show that than by giving money to her son-in-law to play with. He might not be any good at it, but he does know someone who might live in the White House one day. At that's where the real money gets made.”
That's not all, the watchdog also cites similar corruption in her campaign:
“FACT has asked the IRS to investigate whether the Clinton Foundation broke federal law by making payments of nearly $350,000 to Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential campaign to rent Clinton's email list after she failed to secure the Democratic nomination. The transaction came at a time the campaign was paying off debt, but Clinton’s ability to fundraise was limited by State Department ethics rules.”
It goes on:
“FACT asked the FEC to investigate illegal interactions between Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and her PAC, Ready for Hillary, over a Ready for Hillary email list with 4 million names which the Clinton campaign received. There is skepticism about the legitimacy of this list swap since Ready for Hillary is an independent Super PAC and Federal law explicitly prohibits a candidate from coordinating with and accepting donations, including an in-kind donation of a mailing list, from a super PAC.”
This notable an achievement from the Democratic front-runner could do much to help her stand out from the other candidates. With a winner like Hillary, the White House is in the bag.
