Clinton Cash

Submission 12,501

Part of a series on Hillary Clinton. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Clinton Cash is a 2015 book written by American political journalist Peter Schweizer in which he raises several ethical questions concerning how Bill and Hillary Clinton amassed their wealth by investigating the history of donations made by various foreign entities to the Clinton Foundation, a non-profit humanitarian organization established by former United States president Bill Clinton in 2001.

Background

Prior to the release of his book, Peter Schweizer, the American political commentator and president of the conservative investigative research organization Government Accountability Institute (GAI), made exclusive agreements with The New York Times, The Washington Post and Fox News for syndication of his work. Upon its publication on May 5th, 2015, the book stirred up a debate in the U.S. news media over the ethical integrity of the Clintons, particularly in regard to foreign donations received by the Clinton Foundation, such as compensation for speeches delivered by Bill Clinton and possible conflicts of interest as a result thereof while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State for the United States from 2009 to 2013.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On Twitter, Hillary Clinton's critics began tweeting about the book's allegations along with the hashtag "#OhHillNo" (shown below). According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[13] the hashtag was tweeted over 50,000 times from April 11th to May 11th.

Criticism

On April 22nd, the news site Politico^[11] published a review of an advanced chapter of the book, which criticized Schweizer for failing to present adequate evidence for his claims. The same day, the news site Time^[12] faulted the book for presenting allegations "as questions rather than proof." On April 28th, BuzzFeed News^[10] published a statement from Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna, who dismissed Schweizer's allegations that Bill Clinton was paid for speeches in Ireland by businessman Dennis O'Brien as false.

On May 12th, publisher Amazon alerted purchasers of the book that several passages in it were inaccurate and that "seven or eight factual corrections" had been made, effective immediately on Kindle eBook copies.^[14] Included among the corrections was the removal of the claim that Bill Clinton was paid for the speeches in Ireland.^[15]

Clinton's Response

In response to the book, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign issued a sweeping dismissal Schweizer's claims. On April 20th, Clinton made her first public statement regarding the controversy:

"We are back into the political season and there are all kinds of distractions and attacks, and I am ready for that. I know that that comes, unfortunately, with the territory. It is, I think, worth nothing that the Republicans seem to be talking only about me. I don't know what they would be talk about if I wasn't in the race. But I am in the race and hopefully we will get onto the issues and I look forward to that."

^[8]

On May 5th, the Clinton campaign launched a webpage titled "The Briefing"^[9] to refute claims made in the Clinton Cash book. The page features a video presented by Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon, who insists that Schweizer's allegations had been "debunked far and wide" (shown below).