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Last week Hillary Clinton was under fire for taking around $1.8 million in speaking fees from colleges – many of which were increasing tuition on students – since leaving the State Department.  Over the holiday weekend Clinton tried to clean-up the PR mess by saying that those fees had been donated to a charity – her own, the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

Given the foundations track record of lavish spending this raises some questions about just how the Clinton Foundation charity cash has been spent since Hillary left the White House.

1. Is the Foundation paying for Clinton’s political staff or being used as a holding ground for future Clinton Presidential staff? 

In 2013, The New York Times reported that “the foundation could serve as a base…to build up a stable of trusted staff members who could form the core of a political campaign.” Among those on the payroll at the time were a handful of Clinton 2008 presidential campaign staff including Huma Abedin and Dennis Cheng, the finance director of her 08 campaign leading what some Clinton donors describe as a “dry run” for the 2016 campaign at the Foundation. 

Its hard to argue that lavish speaking fees are going to a charity when that charity is paying for presidential campaign prep.

2. Do the college speaking fees help underwrite the CGI meetings? 

According to a Clinton Foundation press release in 2013, CGI was reincorporated into the Clinton Foundation when Secretary Clinton left the State Department. That adds substantial overhead cost to the foundation that can’t be described as “charitable.”

For example: In 2012 the total CGI budget was $28 million. Of that, $25 million was spent on their annual meetings. According to the 990 CGI spent over $1 million of that on “production” vendors including stage crews and technical production.

Not your typical charity expenditures.

3. Is the Foundation still footing the bill for the Clintons ostentatious travel? 

A 2013 report by the New York Post found that the Clinton Foundation spent $60 million on travel from 2003-2012. When combined with their other initiatives that number ballooned past $85 million.

If the universities fees are being used so that the Clintons can fly around on private jets and stay in luxurious presidential suites, is that really a charitable contribution?

4. What about travel for celebrities? 

Clinton Foundation events are often replete with celebrity star power. In one instance, Natalie Portman was given a first class ticket for her and her Yorkie to an event in Austin.

I’m sure the students paying a higher tuition next Spring would be happy to hear that the university cash went to pay for celebrity dog travel.

5. Is the Clinton Foundation still paying  Teneo a 7 figure consulting fee? 

Founded by former top Clinton aides, Teneo has been a preferred consulting firm for the Clintons. Previous reports indicated that they made $250k per month from the Clinton Foundation, which is approximately what Hillary was making from each college speech.

This just scratches the surface of what we don’t know about the Clinton Foundation finances. As POLITICO reporter Ben White noted, until we do saying that she donated speaking fees to charity isn’t much of an answer.

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Despite Hillary Clinton’s claim that “the cure for corruption is openness,” for months, the State Department has been stonewalling congressional and press inquiries into the peculiar arrangement naming top Clinton aide Huma Abedin a “special government employee,” allowing her to work for other entities while remaining at the State Department. Abedin went on to work for Teneo, a consulting firm with deep ties to the Clintons and the family’s foundation, while still working at the State Department, and having access to sensitive information.

Now it turns out, the problem is 100 times bigger. According to ProPublica, Huma Abedin is one of “about 100” special government employees. What’s worse is the tactics the Department is using to try to avoid revealing these individuals’ identities and their private sector clients. After denying a media inquiry and Freedom of Information Act request from ProPublica, which other Departments granted, the State Department only “reopened” the request after it learned ProPublica was going to write about the denial. Yet the Department has continued to stall, delaying its response three separate times.

Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin drew scrutiny for a special arrangement that allowed her to work part time at the State Department while simultaneously maintaining a side gig working for a corporate consulting firm. …

So who else is a special government employee at the State Department? The department won’t say – even as eight other federal agencies readily sent us lists of their own special government employees.

A State Department spokeswoman did confirm that there are “about 100” such employees. But asked for a list, she added that, “As general policy, [the department] does not disclose employee information of this nature.”

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Bill Clinton tried to claim he and Hillary are “a hundred miles from {Weiner’s} campaign,” but a new New York Times, story shows just how close he really is.

They have made Babette’s, an easygoing French restaurant with an outdoor porch, a regular spot for cake, and usually sample the menu of Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton, which is owned in part by Jason Weiner, who is the brother-in-law of Mrs. Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin.

The Weiners and the Clintons just can’t seem to get enough of each other. At least they have plenty to discuss over some Montauk Fluke with clams “casino.”

The New York Times reports that despite repeated requests over months, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin refuses to disclose any information regarding how she was made a “Special Government Employee,” allowed to consult for private clients while still a top aide to the Secretary of State. It adds that “the State Department has declined to say what role Mrs. Clinton played in approving the arrangement”: 

Isn’t the news from here that Weiner says he knows what Huma’s role will be in Hillary’s 2016 campaign? #buzzfeedbrews

— maggie haberman (@maggiepolitico)

August 12, 2013

After a week of vain leaks, a bizarre, choreographed dinner, and disappointed staffers leaving the Hillary 2016 “farm team,” the Clintons still can’t help but inject themselves into the drama of Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal.

The New York Times has the tick-tock on how Hillary was briefed on her longtime aide Huma Abedin’s plans: 

Longtime allies from Mrs. Clinton’s close-knit inner circle, the two spoke for several minutes before Ms. Abedin ended the call and stepped before reporters to make her statement.

Mr. Reines, 43, said his primary interest was in supporting his close friend Ms. Abedin, who has been an aide to Mrs. Clinton since the White House years, during a difficult time. But he also called Mrs. Clinton to make sure she knew what was about to unfold, according to a person briefed on their conversation.

Clinton family insider Huma Abedin who was a top aide in Hillary Clinton’s State Department, has ignored a congressional inquiry into potential conflicts of interest into a special arrangement which she did not disclose, allowing her to continue working as a top official in the Department while she was allowed to simultaneously consult for private clients:

Huma Abedin, the wife Democratic mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner, has not responded to a request by a senior Republican senator for information on an unusual arrangement in which she worked part time for the State Department while also advising private clients.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote Abedin and the State Department on June 13 demanding details on Abedin’s work, while also representing private clients, as a “special government employee” under her longtime boss, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from June 2012 to Feb. 2013.

Grassley wrote that one of those clients, Teneo, “a global strategic consulting firm” may have “compensated you for gathering information from government sources for the purpose of informing investment decisions of your clients.” He did detail that claim further.

Abedin has not responded to or acknowledged the letter, according to Grassley’s office.

Abedin consulted for the Clinton Global Foundation and worked for Hillary Clinton as the head of her post-State Department transition team.