Clinton family charity says daughter to stay on board

Chelsea Clinton, who serves as the Clinton Foundation’s vice chairman, is expected to help oversee new fundraising policies and the transfer of projects to partner charities and other organizations doing similar work, a spokesman said Thursday.
Chelsea Clinton, who serves as the Clinton Foundation’s vice chairman, is expected to help oversee new fundraising policies and the transfer of projects to partner charities and other organizations doing similar work, a spokesman said Thursday.

WASHINGTON -- Chelsea Clinton would remain on the board of her family's foundation even if her mother is elected president, her spokesman said Thursday.


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The announcement comes as a health project connected to the Clinton Foundation is exploring a number of changes to minimize potential conflicts of interest in the event of another Clinton White House but may continue to accept foreign government and corporate funding.

A spokesman for the 36-year-old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and current Democratic presidential nominee, said Chelsea Clinton was committed to ensuring that those benefiting from the foundation's work would continue to receive "that often life-changing help," and as a result Chelsea Clinton "would remain on the board to help steward the implementation of changes which do that appropriately."

Bill Clinton announced last week that if Hillary Clinton were elected president, the Clinton Foundation would no longer accept foreign and corporate donations, he would step down from its board and he no longer would raise money for the organization.

The changes were attempts to insulate Hillary Clinton from possible conflicts of interest should she be elected president and were outlined as she faced renewed criticism over the charitable foundation and her role of secretary of state.

But the continued role of Chelsea Clinton on the foundation's board and directing additional corporate and foreign money to the affiliated health project could create exceptions to those changes and appear to be loopholes to allow control of the foundation and its projects to remain within the Clinton family.

Chelsea Clinton, who serves as the foundation's vice chairman, is expected to help oversee new fundraising policies and moving projects to partner charities and other organizations doing similar work.

The ex-president told staff members that he also would step down from the board of the Clinton Health Access Initiative Inc., a global health care project affiliated with the foundation, and it would consider "a range of options to ensure that its vital work will continue." But the project, which has provided access to HIV/AIDS drugs for more than 11.5 million people in more than 70 countries, has not yet said whether it will continue to accept corporate and foreign donations.

Regan Lachapelle, a spokesman for the health initiative, noted that it was a "separate legal entity from the Clinton Foundation with its own board which will determine its next steps."

On Wednesday, Bill Clinton said he's proud of people who have donated to the Clinton Foundation and the work the organization has done.

"We're trying to do good things," he said. "If there's something wrong with creating jobs and saving lives, I don't know what it is. The people who gave the money knew exactly what they were doing. I have nothing to say about it except that I'm really proud. I'm proud of what they've done."

He also defended Hillary Clinton's contact with donors to the foundation while serving as secretary of state, saying foundation donors like Bangladeshi economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus have no trouble reaching officials around the world.

A report released by The Associated Press on Tuesday found more than half of the nongovernment officials who met with Hillary Clinton during the first half of her tenure as secretary of state gave money to the Clinton Foundation.

The meetings between Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and foundation donors don't appear to violate legal agreements both Clintons signed before she joined the State Department in 2009. State Department officials have said they are unaware of any agency actions influenced by the foundation.

Yet the frequency of the overlaps shows the mixing of access and donations. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has criticized the links between the foundation and the State Department, accusing the Clintons of establishing "a business to profit from public office."

On Wednesday evening, Hillary Clinton said The Associated Press had only "looked at a small portion of my time" as secretary of state and had drawn the conclusion that her meetings with Nobel laureates -- such as Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel -- were connected to the foundation rather than their work as global leaders.

"That is absurd," she told CNN. She described the story as "all smoke, no fire."

A Section on 08/26/2016

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