Does the Left Only Care About the Campaign Finance Activities of Republicans?

For years the left has been screaming about disclosure and nebulous so-called “dark money."  Yet, in the most outrageous current example of flouting of disclosure and any sort of ethical duty on fundraising, they are mostly silent.  If the campaign finance watchdog groups on the left had any principles they would be screaming about the Clinton Foundation and what it means for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. 

A recent paper by the Capitol Research Center starts to put the pieces together.  While much has been made about a recent book, little has been made about the personnel matters related to the donations.

The Foundation identified Mills as one its three directors when applying for nonprofit status in Florida in June 2009. That came five months after Mills began serving as Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff at State. Mills was also listed as a director in Clinton Foundation filings in 2010, 2011 and 2012, or basically for the duration of Clinton’s tenure at the State Department, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

George W. Bush’s White House ethics counsel Richard Painter told the Free Beacon that such an arrangement is questionable.  “It would be highly problematic if she was a director of the foundation and she was participating in State Department decisions that could have a financial benefit to the foundation,” Painter said. “If you did do something that had a direct and predictable financial benefit for the foundation, you get into criminal statutes” (Washington Free Beacon, April 1, 2015).

This was not the only time that a Clinton Foundation and State Department employee were in an ethical tangle.  Hillary Clinton’s top aide over the last few years, Huma Abedin, was at the end of Hillary’s tenure as Secretary of State a State Department “special government employee” while also serving as an advisor to a top donor to the Clinton Foundation, Teneo Foundation. This time it is not just “Republicans” but State Department Inspector General that is concerned.   

On April 10, the department’s inspector general announced he was launching an investigation into Abedin’s irregular employment arrangements. 

Where are all those on the left that make their money talking about campaign finance?  One thing is for sure, they would not be silent if it was a Republican with the same arrangement as Hillary’s friends and allies.