Clinton Foundation Timeline
2007 – The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Private Rooftop Garden: An Obscene Violation Of Charity Law & Principles
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:
July 6, 2007 – Jeffrey Epstein’s plea deal touts his close friendship with Bill Clinton and a claim he helped conceive the Clinton Global Initiative program
Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein (Credit: public domain)
“Attorneys for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein touted his close friendship with Bill Clinton and even claimed the billionaire helped start Clinton’s controversial family foundation in a 2007 letter aimed at boosting his image during plea negotiations, FoxNews.com has learned.
The 23-page letter, written by high-powered lawyers Alan Dershowitz and Gerald Lefcourt, was apparently part of an ultimately successful bid to negotiate a plea deal before Epstein could be tried for using underage girls in a sex ring based in Palm Beach, Fla., and his private island estate on the 72-acre Virgin Islands home dubbed “Orgy Island.” Epstein spent 13 months in prison and home detention after agreeing to a plea deal in which he admitted to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.
“Mr. Epstein was part of the original group that conceived the Clinton Global Initiative, which is described as a project ‘bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges,” read the July 2007 letter to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida. “Focuses of this initiative include poverty, climate change, global health, and religious and ethnic conflicts.”
The hedge fund magnate’s true role in creating the foundation could not be confirmed. Whether Epstein was an actual founder of the foundation or exaggerated his role in a phony effort to appear altruistic is not clear.
Epstein is not cited in official paperwork filed by the Clinton Global Initiative as a founder or director. Neither The Clinton Foundation nor Dershowitz responded to FoxNews.com’s inquiry as to the extent of Epstein’s involvement. FoxNews.com first reported that flight logs show the former president flew on Epstein’s private plane dozens of times. But Clinton has publicly credited longtime assistant Doug Band, now counselor and director of the foundation, as conceiving of the idea.” (Read more: Fox News, 7/06/2016)
August, 2007 – The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership effectively shielded the identities of donors
“Aides to former President Bill Clinton helped start a Canadian charity that effectively shielded the identities of donors who gave more than $33 million that went to his foundation, despite a pledge of transparency when Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state.
The nonprofit, the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada), operates in parallel to a Clinton Foundation project called the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which is expressly covered by an agreement Mrs. Clinton signed to make all donors public while she led the State Department. However, the foundation maintains that the Canadian partnership is not bound by that agreement and that under Canadian law contributors’ names cannot be made public.
The foundation cited that restriction last weekend in explaining why it did not disclose $2.35 million in donations from the chairman of Uranium One, the subject of an article in The New York Times last week. The article examined how company executives and shareholders had sold a majority stake in the company — and with it a significant portion of American uranium reserves — to an arm of the Russian government in a deal that required the approval of the United States government.”
(…) “The partnership, established in 2007, effectively shielded the identities of its donors — and the amount they gave — by allowing them to bundle their money together in the offshoot Canadian partnership before it was passed along to Clinton Foundation programs. The foundation, in turn, names only the partnership as the source of those funds.” (Read more: New York Times, 4/29/2015) (Archive)
September 28, 2007 The Clintons are mum on donors
The William J. Clinton Library (Credit: public domain)
“Bill Clinton is showing no inclination to disclose the names of the people whose sizable donations helped construct his $165 million presidential library.
In a surreal moment during Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked about the fact that her husband’s foundation and library refuse to disclose the names of the people who have chipped in, sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars — any of whom might want to curry favor with the family of the next president. Moderator Tim Russert asked why her husband had not voluntarily made the donor list public even if the law does not require it, given the potential for conflict.
“You’ll have to ask them,” said the senator from New York.
“What’s your recommendation?” Russert asked.
“Well, I don’t talk about my private conversations with my husband,” she responded.” (Read more: Washington Post, 09/28/2007)
October 2007-December 2015: Two Clinton Foundation donors own 2 of the 3 largest voting systems in the United States that have a history of “glitches”
Election Systems Software (ES&S) is owned by The McCarthy Group.
OpenSecrets.org reveals Michael R. McCarthy, owner of The McCarthy Group, donated $2700 to Hillary Clinton in December 2015.
Salon created a Clinton Foundation donor list in 2007 and found The McCarthy Group listed as donating 200,000 dollars in 2007 when it was the largest voting machine company in the United States, and shortly before Clinton made her first run for the presidency.
In December 2019, Democratic Senators Warren, Klobuchar, Wyden, and Pocan sent letters to the McCarthy Group, majority owner of Election Systems Software (ES&S); Staple Street Capital Group, majority owner of Dominion Voting Systems and H.I.G. Capital with majority ownership of HartInterCivic. The Senators describe these companies as:
“private equity-owned election technology vendors serving 90% of eligible voters but fail to sufficiently innovate, improve, and protect deteriorating voting systems; Election security experts have noted for years that our nation’s voting systems and election infrastructure are under serious threat.”
Dominion Voting Systems and The Clinton Foundation also agreed to a 2.25 million dollar charity initiative in developing nations called the DELIAN Project.
According to the Clinton Foundation’s own project website:
In 2014, Dominion Voting committed to providing emerging and post-conflict democracies with access to voting technology through its philanthropic support to the DELIAN Project, as many emerging democracies suffer from post-electoral violence due to the delay in the publishing of election results. Over the next three years, Dominion Voting will support election technology pilots with donated Automated Voting Machines (AVM), providing an improved electoral process, and therefore safer elections. As a large number of election staff are women, there will be an emphasis on training women, who will be the first to benefit from the skills transfer training and use of AVMs. It is estimated that 100 women will directly benefit from election technology skills training per pilot election.
Canadian John A. Poulos, co-founder of Dominion Voting Systems, is also a Clinton Foundation donor.
Software used by the voting system Dominion reportedly “glitched” in favor of Joe Biden in key parts of Michigan. As it turns out, key members of Dominion have ties that go back to Hillary Clinton.
One America’s Chief White House Correspondent Chanel Rion has more:
On November 3, 2018, Fortune (Bloomberg) publishes an article titled, “Private Equity Controls the Gatekeepers of American Democracy” and writes:
Millions of Americans will cast votes in Tuesday’s midterm elections, some on machines that experts say use outdated software or are vulnerable to hacking. If there are glitches or some races are too close to call — or evidence emerges of more meddling attempts by Russia — voters may wake up on Wednesday and wonder: Can we trust the outcome?
Meet, then, the gatekeepers of American democracy: Three obscure, private equity-backed companies control an estimated $300 million U.S. voting-machine industry. Though most of their revenue comes from taxpayers, and they play an indispensable role in determining the balance of power in America, the companies largely function in secret.
Devices made by Election Systems & Software LLC, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic Inc. will process about nine of every ten ballots next week. Each of the companies is privately held and at least partially controlled by private equity firms.
Beyond that, little is known about how they operate or to whom they answer. They don’t disclose financial results and aren’t subject to federal regulation. While the companies say their technology is secure and up-to-date, security experts for years have raised concerns that older, sometimes poorly engineered, equipment can jeopardize the integrity of elections and, more importantly, erode public trust.
“We have more federal regulation of ballpoint pens and Magic Markers than our voting infrastructure,” said Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program at New York University School of Law. “There’s no national system, and the result is that states are largely forced to buy from these companies.”