A view of the rooftop garden At the Clinton Presidential Library. (Credit: Google Earth)
“At least as far back as the days of decadent Roman emperors such as Nero and Caligula, elaborate gardens have been notorious as an unseemly indulgence by those with wealth or power or both. It is easy to understand why, for though a small herbal garden adds charm to even a humble home, the notion that people who purport to care about the country they govern or have governed would squander public resources on an ornamental garden for personal pleasure can well be taken to epitomize the sort of arrogance that ultimately leads to revolution. Such is the case with the 14,000 square foot rooftop garden that the Clinton Foundation (the legal name of which is the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) had installed on the rooftop of the Presidential library in Little Rock Arkansas (the “Rooftop Garden”).
A view of the private residence atop the library in Little Rock, Arkansas. (Credit: Anndrea Morales/The New York Times)
Though there was some publicity about the Rooftop Garden when it was installed back in 2007, hardly anyone knows that it exists. That is because it is private. That should strike anyone — regardless of political persuasion — as being problematic if not disgusting given that it would appear to have been financed entirely by donations to what is ostensibly a charitable foundation. Exactly how it was financed is not known because the financial records of the Clinton Foundation are a joke. A serious professional audit of them began only a few years ago, but the firm hired to conduct the audit, Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC), did not delve deeply into the past: its audit covered only 2010 and later. By stopping there PWC effectively implied that no “financial statement” of the Clinton Foundation prior to 2010 can be trusted.
Uncovering The Obscene Violation Of Charity Law & Principles The Rooftop Garden Constitutes
The fact that there is a private penthouse on top of the Presidential library in Little Rock is relatively well known. Even the New York Times admits to knowing about it: