Sunday, January 14, 2018

BILL CLINTON SLAMS CLAIM FOUNDATION PAID FOR CHELSEA'S WEDDING AS 'A PERSONAL INSULT'



BY HARRIET SINCLAIR

Former president Bill Clinton has hit out at the suggestion his Clinton Foundation footed the bill for daughter Chelsea’s wedding to Marc Mezvinsky.
The former first daughter married investment banker Mezvinsky in 2010, in a ceremony her father has strenuously denied funding through the family’s charitable organization in a tweet on Saturday.
“No Clinton Foundation funds—dedicated to Haiti or otherwise—were used to pay for Chelsea’s wedding. It’s not only untrue, it’s a personal insult to me, to Hillary, and to Chelsea and Marc,” Clinton wrote, sharing a link to an article by The Washington Post that fact-checked the claim and reported there was no evidence to support it.
The suggestion the Clintons had paid for their daughter's wedding with money from the foundation was raised in 2016 during the hack of Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s emails.
In an email exchange between Podesta and former Bill Clinton aide Doug Band in 2012, Band refers to Chelsea Clinton: "using foundation resources for her wedding," in claims that there has not been any further evidence to support.
“The investigation into her getting paid for campaigning, using foundation resources for her wedding and life for a decade, taxes on money from her parents….I hope you will speak to her and end this,” Band says in the email to Podesta, although no further details are mentioned nor explained further, The Post reported.
The claim was reported by Wikileaks during the 2016 presidential election campaign, with the organization sharing a link to the emails and writing: “Chelsea Clinton used Clinton Foundation resources for her wedding -- email from top Bill Clinton aid [sic] Doug Band.”
Neither Band nor Podesta commented on the email, although The Post alleges the claims released in the email by Wikileaks were among the factors that had swayed some people from voting for Clinton in 2016.

Bill Clinton’s tweet comes shortly after it emerged that the Clinton Foundation was facing an investigation from the Justice Department over whether it engaged in any "pay-to-play" politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, according to reports.

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