Clinton Foundation paid Blumenthal $10K per month while he advised on LibyaSome officials at the charity grumbled that his hiring was a favor from the Clintons.Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant of Bill and Hillary Clinton, earned about $10,000 a month as a full-time employee of the Clinton Foundation while he was providing unsolicited intelligence on Libya to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to multiple sources familiar with the arrangement.
Blumenthal was added to the payroll of the Clintons’ global philanthropy in 2009 — not long after advising Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign — at the behest of former president Bill Clinton, for whom he had worked in the White House, say the sources.
While Blumenthal’s foundation job focused on highlighting the legacy of Clinton’s presidency, some officials at the charity questioned his value and grumbled that his hiring was a favor from the Clintons, according to people familiar with the foundation. They say that, during a 2013 reform push, Blumenthal was moved to a consulting contract that came with a similar pay rate but without benefits — an arrangement that endured until March.
A Clinton loyalist who first earned the family’s trust as an aggressive combatant in the political battles of the 1990s, Blumenthal continues to work as a paid consultant to two groups supporting Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign — American Bridge and Media Matters — both of which are run by David Brock, a close ally of both Clinton and Blumenthal.
Yet Blumenthal’s financial and personal connections to the Clintons and their allies have emerged as subjects of intense scrutiny as Clinton seeks to gain momentum for her presidential campaign.
Blumenthal’s concurrent work for the foundation, the Brock groups and a pair of businesses seeking potentially lucrative contracts in Libya underscores the blurred lines between her State Department work and that of her family’s charitable and political enterprises.
Blumenthal has been subpoenaed by the U.S. House committee investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and Clinton’s handling of it. He is expected to testify next week about a series of memos containing sometimes specious intelligence on the situation in Libya, which he sent to Hillary Clinton’s personal email account.
The committee is said to be interested in exploring Blumenthal’s connections to any entity that may have stood to benefit from Clinton’s decisions in Libya. Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) also wants to probe how seriously the State Department took Blumenthal’s advice, which recently released emails show were met with skepticism at times.
Clinton, whose efforts to hire Blumenthal as an adviser at the State Department were rebuffed by top aides to President Barack Obama, last week defended her relationship with her old ally but also minimized his influence. Describing him as “a friend of mine for a long time,” Clinton, who also plans to testify before the committee, said “he sent me unsolicited emails which I passed on in some instances, and I say that that’s just part of the give and take.”
In his own statement last week, Blumenthal suggested that he did not write the memos on behalf of the foundation or any other entities with which he may have been associated, but rather as “a private citizen and friend” of Clinton’s.
His lawyer, former Deputy Attorney General James Cole, told POLITICO on Wednesday that Blumenthal did not have any financial interest in the efforts of the two companies pushing to win contracts in Libya — Osprey Global Solutions and Constellations Group.
“He never got any money from — and has no continuing relationship with — Osprey or Constellations,” said Cole.
The Clinton Foundation declined to comment.
Blumenthal’s move to a consulting contract came at about the time he signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to write a four-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln, the first installment of which is set for release in April.
The move from the foundation’s full-time staff roster exempted him from requirements that any outside work done be vetted and approved by the foundation. The shift also coincided with an effort to professionalize the foundation. More rigorous fiscal and organizational policies were implemented, while the portfolios of other longtime Clinton confidants were diminished, such as the president’s old Arkansas lawyer Bruce Lindsey, his former bodyman Doug Band and former White House policy adviser Ira Magaziner.
Media Matters spokesman Zac Petkanas wouldn’t provide details on Blumenthal’s relationship with the group. “We’ve worked with various consultants over the years,” he said. “As a matter of policy, we do not discuss the details of any of these arrangements.”
But Blumenthal’s work for American Bridge and Media Matters is described as ongoing, even as those groups come to Clinton’s defense by trying to neutralize attacks on her related to Benghazi and her use of a private email account and server for official business, while assailing the prospective Republican rivals leveling those attacks.
One source familiar with the work said Blumenthal regularly reaches out to suggest ways in which the groups can inject themselves into ongoing political fights.
“I’m not sure if his ideas are very helpful,” said the source, suggesting Blumenthal’s value comes more from his connection to the Clintons. “This is all about helping someone who is a friend of the Clintons.”
The super PAC arm of American Bridge reported paying Blumenthal $2,500 in June 2013 for “Strategic Consulting Services,” though payments also could be directed to him through a consulting firm. And it’s possible he’s paid by the nonprofit arm of the group, which, like Media Matters, is registered under a section of the tax code — 501(c) — that does not require detailed disclosure of expenditures.
Likewise, Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign did not disclose any payments made directly to Blumenthal.
Clinton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a question about whether Blumenthal would be involved this time around.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/clinton-foundation-sidney-blumenthal-salary-libya-118359.html
