Hacked Memo Reinforces Worst Perception of the Clintons
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First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day’s most important political stories and why they matter
Hacked memo reinforces worst perception of the Clintons
It’s possible that this Clinton Foundation memo — uncovered by the WikiLeaks dump of hacked emails — is already baked into the cake of this presidential race. But it certainly doesn’t help the Clinton campaign, downballot Democrats, or the future of the Clinton Foundation itself. Per the Washington Post, “When top Bill Clinton aide Douglas Band wrote the memo, he was a central player at the Clinton Foundation and president of his own corporate consulting firm. Over the course of 13 pages, he made a case that his multiple roles had served the interests of the Clinton family and its charity. In doing so, Band also detailed a circle of enrichment in which he raised money for the Clinton Foundation from top-tier corporations such as Dow Chemical and Coca-Cola that were clients of his firm, Teneo, while pressing many of those same donors to provide personal income to the former president.” More: “The memo … lays out the aggressive strategy behind lining up the consulting contracts and paid speaking engagements for Bill Clinton that added tens of millions of dollars to the family’s fortune, including during the years that Hillary Clinton led the State Department. It describes how Band helped run what he called ‘Bill Clinton Inc.,’ obtaining ‘in-kind services for the President and his family — for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like.'”
The Clinton campaign will have to speak out, because the memo has been authenticated
What the memo makes clear is how inseparable the Clinton Foundation was to business interests. And while the Clinton campaign has refused to acknowledge the authenticity of the previous WikiLeaks emails, the company that Band co-founded — Teneo — did confirm the memo. And that puts extra pressure on Clinton and her campaign to speak out.
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http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/hacked-memo-reinforces-worst-perception-clintons-n673806