By: Savannah Smith | 10-22-2016 | News
Photo credit: Flickr / Gage Skidmore

How Hillary Solicited Money From Foreign Countries

Another fresh Wikileaks emails show that even a close aide of Hillary Clinton got exasperated with the former secretary of state's penchant for unethical practices and getting herself in sticky situations where there are clear cases of conflict of interest.

The exposed emails illustrate how Hillary once actively initiated and pursued to solicit a $12 million donation from King Mohammed VI of Morocco for the Clinton Foundation. It is also highly possible that she may have started this even while serving as secretary of state, and continued to go at it even after she has launched her presidential run.

It left a close aide Huma Abedin probably scratching her head, and scrambling for solutions for what she termed as "a mess" Hillary herself has created as she had a series of email exchanges with two other Clinton top aides John Podesta and Robby Mook.

The emails reveal that it was Hillary herself who has thought of the idea- and asked that it be pursued- to speak at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in Morocco in May 2015, in return for the whopping $12 million pledge from the king.

Hillary's other aides were later on, of course, against the idea, as the speaking engagement would happen a month after the official launch of her presidential campaign. The other senior staff were worried that such would just invite more questions and doubts about Hillary's real role in the foundation.

Even with the opposition of her advisers, Hillary was set to go for it even as late as January of 2015. The email follow-ups show Mook and Podesta not being amenable with the idea of letting Hillary attend and speak at the event, but Abedin was put in a tight spot, saying that the Moroccans' reason for agreeing to the event in the first place- and presumably with the generous donation to the Clinton Foundation- was the guarantee that Hillary would grace the event. Again, the idea for her participation having emanated where else- but from Hillary herself.

" This was HRC's ( Hillary) idea, our office approached the Moroccans and they 100% believe they are doing this at her request. The king has personally committed approximately $12 million both for the endowment and to support the meeting.", Abedin wrote to her colleagues in an email dated January, 2015.

It was not clear, however, if by " our office", Abedin was talking about the Office of the Secretary of State or of the Clinton Foundation, after Hillary has left her government post. Whichever way, however, it smacks of likely ethical breaches.

The other aides' position to disallow Hillary's participation in the event has put Abedin in a tight spot since on her end, and on the approval of Hillary herself, she might have already committed Hillary's attendance to the Moroccans. This prompted Abedin to wail in the email that " She ( Hillary) has created this mess and she knows it."

Interestingly, in 2011 Hillary as secretary of state issued charges that the Moroccan government was behind arbitrary arrests and corruption in all branches of government. So all these was conveniently forgotten for a tempting $12 million donation?

Charles Ortel, a philanthropy expert critical of the dealings of the Clinton Foundation had a very essential and probing question in an interview with Fox News. " What do these donors get in return? We have to scratch the surface."

In a separate interview with Fox News, too, Donald Trump urges Hillary to give the money back to the donors, especially the more dubious and questionable ones. He also points out the irony- if not hypocrisy- of Hillary projecting herself as pro-women but accepts these money from countries that oppress women.

Trump vows to stop corruption when he's elected into office by " draining the swamp of Washington, D.C.".

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