Thursday, May 14, 2015

Guess what Stephanopoulos didn’t declare — his own financial contributions to an organization that Sunlight Foundation official Bill Allison said operates like “a slush fund for the Clintons.”

UPDATE:


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◼ Stephanopoulos gave $50,000 to Clinton Foundation, didn’t disclose during coverage of scandal; ABC News: “Honest mistake”; Update: Other coverage without disclosure from 2013, 2014; Update: Two weeks ago, too - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

Remember when George Stephanopoulos declared during an interview with Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer that the book had found no “smoking gun” against the Clinton Foundation and the Clintons themselves?

...Let’s recall the exchange between Stephanopoulos and Schweizer:
STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know, the Clinton campaign says you haven’t produced a shred of evidence that there was any official action as secretary that — that supported the interests of donors.

SCHWEIZER: Well…

STEPHANOPOULOS: We’ve done investigative work here at ABC News, found no proof of any kind of direct action. And an independent government ethics expert, Bill Allison, of the Sunline Foundation (ph), wrote this. He said, “There’s no smoking gun, no evidence that she changed the policy based on donations to the foundation.”

No smoking gun.

Is there a smoking gun?

SCHWEIZER: Yes. The smoking gun is in the pattern of behavior. And here’s the analogy I would give you. It’s a little bit like insider trading. I wrote a book on Congressional insider trading a couple of years ago and talked with prosecutors.

Most people that engage in criminal insider trading don’t send an e-mail that says I’ve got inside information, buy this stock.

The way they look at it, they look at a pattern of stock trades. If the person has access to that information and they do a series of well-timed trades, that warrants investigation.

I think the same thing applies here.

By the way, what’s important to note is it was confirmed on Thursday, both by “The New York Times” and “The Wall Street Journal,” that there were multi-million dollar, non-disclosed donations that were made to the Clinton Foundation that were never disclosed by the Clintons.

This is a direct breach of an agreement they signed with the White House.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That — that is an issue for them, but it’s not a criminal — it’s nothing that would warrant a criminal investigation.
Gee, maybe that would have been a good time to add, “Just to be clear, I’ve donated $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation,” for the sake of honesty.























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