Hillary Clinton in Danger of Political Death

The Clinton Foundation is said to have been involved in the Russian takeover of a fifth of U.S. uranium resources while Hillary was secretary of state.

When she was told about the president’s witty observations on Saturday evening, Hillary Clinton had cause to remember the famous phrase, “With friends like that, who needs enemies.” Barack Obama had taken on the traditional role of self-mockery at the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner, but he was not content merely to make fun of his own personal failings. Alluding to the “hard times” which still trouble America, he joked, “I have one friend … just a few weeks ago she was making millions of dollars a year, and she’s now living out of a van in Iowa.”

This was an obvious reference to Clinton who, wishing to begin her presidential campaign by talking to “ordinary Americans,” has crisscrossed Iowa and New Hampshire in a van that has been converted into a mobile campaign headquarters. However, if the president had wanted to damage his former secretary of state, he could hardly have done better than to highlight, as he did, the fact that not long ago she earned millions of dollars. For the way that Bill and Hillary have amassed an impressive fortune in just a few years is becoming a huge subject for debate in the United States. And perhaps, if Hillary does not find a riposte quickly, it will be a mortal blow to her campaign.

The Enormous Cachet of the Former President

It all started with a book that will not be published until May 5. Its title is itself an indictment: “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.” Extracts published by The New York Times have already revealed some details of this book. Its main thrust is said to be the link between donations given to the Clinton Foundation by rich foreign financiers and the favors that Hillary, then secretary of state, may have obtained for them in return. Hillary Clinton’s campaign started barely a fortnight ago, yet once again she finds herself on the defensive. She already has to appear in front of the Senate in mid-May to answer questions about her use of a private email server for diplomatic and confidential correspondence when she was secretary of state.

But even if Americans have always been under the impression that the Clintons were cheating the law and flouting the rules, as in the email scandal, the question of the foundation’s money is much more serious. To start with, Bill helped a Canadian financier, Frank Giustra, take control of a uranium mining company, some of whose mines were in the United States. In return, the foundation received its first donation from this company. Then a few years later, when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, this company, Uranium One, was sold to the Russian atomic energy corporation Rosatom. Since the Russian company would exceed the market threshold of 51 percent of shares of these American mines, and would at the same time acquire a fifth of America’s uranium resources, a State Department committee had to approve the takeover of politically sensitive ores by a foreign company. However, the green light was given by the State Department at the same time Bill was in Moscow for a conference organized by a foundation close to Rosatom, for which he was paid $500,000 – an enormous fee, even for a former president. And following that, the Canadian company that set up the deal, Uranium One, made a new donation of several million dollars to the Clinton Foundation.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff has already responded that, at the time, the secretary of state had not even been informed of the authorization given to Rosatom – a defense that is hardly convincing. Hillary will have to find a better way to exonerate herself. Luckily for her, the author of the book, the contents of which you can be sure will be checked several times over, is a notorious opponent and dyed-in-the-wool Republican, which does not say much for his impartiality. Peter Schweizer was a speechwriter for President George W. Bush.