For months we've been told that the Clinton Foundation, and it's various subsidiaries, were simple, innocent "charitable" organizations, despite the mountain of WikiLeaks evidence suggesting rampant pay-to-play scandals surrounding a uranium deal with Russia and earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti, among others. Well, if that is, in fact, true perhaps the Clintons could explain why wealthy foreign governments, like Australia and Norway, are suddenly slashing their contributions just as Hillary's schedule has been freed up to focus exclusively on her charity work. Surely, these foreign governments weren't just contributing to the Clinton Foundation in hopes of currying favor with the future President of the United States, were they? Can't be, only an useless, "alt-right," Putin-progranda-pushing, fake news source could possibly draw such a conclusion.
Alas, no matter the cause, according to news.com.au, the fact is that after contributing $88mm to the Clinton Foundation, and its various affiliates, over the past 10 years the country of Australia has decided to cease future donations to the foundation just weeks after Hillary's stunning loss on November 4th.
And just like that, 2 out of the 3 largest foreign contributors to the Clinton Foundation are gone with Saudia Arabia being the last remaining $10-$25mm donor that hasn't explicitly cut ties or massively scaled by contributions.
News.com.au confirmed Australia's decision to cut future donations to the Clinton Foundation earlier today. When asked why donations were being cut off now, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official simply said that the Clinton Foundation has “a proven track record” in helping developing countries. While that sounds nice, doesn't it seem counterintuitive that these countries would pull their funding just as Hillary has been freed up to spend 100% of her time helping people in developing countries?
Australia has finally ceased pouring millions of dollars into accounts linked to Hillary Clinton’s charities.
Which begs the question: Why were we donating to them in the first place?
The federal government confirmed to news.com.au it has not renewed any of its partnerships with the scandal-plagued Clinton Foundation, effectively ending 10 years of taxpayer-funded contributions worth more than $88 million.
News.com.au approached the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment about how much was donated and why the Clinton Foundation was chosen as a recipient.
A DFAT spokeswoman said all funding is used “solely for agreed development projects” and Clinton charities have “a proven track record” in helping developing countries.
Of course it's only fitting that Australia's Prime Minister is none other than Malcolm Turnbull, the former Chairman of Goldman Sachs Australia. Goldman Sachs only pays for results Madam Secretary.
Meanwhile, this new comes just after the Norwegian newspaper Hegnar pointed out earlier this week that Norway is expected to slash their contributions to the Clinton Foundation by 87% now that Hillary has lost the presidency. After contributing roughly $5mm per year to the Clinton Foundation between 2007 - 2013, the Norwegian government decided to boost their donations to ~$15mm and ~$21mm in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Ironically, that boost in contributions corresponded with Hillary's decision to run for President in 2016...but we're sure it was just a coincidence. That said, it is fairly interesting that, since Hillary's loss, Norway, like Australia, also decided to scale back their contributions by 87% in 2017...things that make you go "hmm".
After a record contribution from Norway to the disputed Clinton Foundation before the election year, is the contribution now in freefall. Financial newspaper can tell that next year's contribution is down 83 percent from the peak year of 2015.
For 2016, the planned payments to Clinton Health Access Initiative totaling 35.9 million kroner, writes communications advisor Guri Solberg at the Foreign Ministry, in an email to Finance newspaper.
It is one-fifth of last year's contribution, when nominating election campaign before the US primaries was in full swing, and the Clinton Foundation came under the spotlight in the US press.
According to Finance newspaper lay the annual Norwegian contribution of NOK 40 million on average from 2007 to 2013. In 2014, the contribution more than tripled, to 129 million. And in 2015 they increased to 174 million.
The money has gone to two of the Foundation's programs, primarily Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), but also the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI).
For 2017 it is planned payments to Clinton Health Access Initiative 23 million, Solberg wrote in an email to Finance newspaper. It is further down 36 percent from the current year. By comparison, ran this program 169 million in 2015.
But, no doubt these are just more "plumes of smoke" for which Hillary has absolutely no explanation.