Quid pro, uh oh: Hillary stopped opposing trade deal after Clinton Foundation's foreign donations
Clinton's lack of caution might have finally caught up with her. According to an investigative report in the International Business Times, the Foundation accepted millions from a Clinton-linked Colombian oil company. Months later, the secretary of state dropped her objections to a trade deal with Columbia that was supposedly prompted by the nation's alleged disrespect for human rights and abuses of labor activists.
The Hill summarized the expansive and damning report:
The report centers on donations from Frank Giustra and the oil company that he founded, Pacific Rubiales. In a Wall Street Journal story from 2008, Giustra is described as a "friend and traveling companion" of former President Clinton who donated more than $130 million to Clinton's philanthropies. He's also a Clinton Foundation board member and has participated in projects and benefits for the foundation.
When workers at Pacific Rubiales decided to strike in 2011, the Columbian military reportedly used force to stop the strikes and compel them to return to work, IBT reports, citing the Washington office of Latin America, a human rights group. Those accusations of human rights violations were part of the criticism of the United States-Colombia Free Trade Promotion Agreement, which was passed by Congress later that year. Pacific Rubiales has repeatedly denied charges that it infringed on workers' rights.
On the campaign trail in 2008, Hillary Clinton, along with then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, opposed the deal as a raw deal for workers, according to IBT. The pair changed their tune after the election and publicly supported the trade agreement. As Secretary of State, Clinton's State Department certified annually that Colombia was "meeting statutory criteria related to human rights."The IBT casts some doubt on Clinton's claim to have genuinely changed her mind about the extent of the South American nation's human rights abuses. The implication being that a $1 million donation from Giustra to his joint Sustainable Growth Initiative venture with the Clintons helped smooth over any lingering concerns about Bogota's commitment to basic rights.
On Thursday, liberal icon Sen. Elizabeth Warren advised her fellow Democrats that it wouldn't be prudent to hand her party's presidential nomination to Clinton too prematurely. Ideally, the Bay State senator and other progressives would like the opportunity to nudge Clinton to the left over the course of the primaries, but her advice would also help Democrats learn if they are nominating a time bomb that could go off well before November of next year.Also read:
Bill Clinton: The scandalous Clinton Foundation might need some reform if Hillary wins
Clinton Foundation to Hold Conference With Moroccan King...for $1 Million
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