Clinton Corruption Front and Center — or The Latest Obama Administration Scandal

This was reported 1/15/2010 by Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch.

Bruce

'Clinton Corruption Front and Center — or The Latest Obama Administration Scandal

James Riady, who plead guilty in 2001 to a "conspiracy to defraud the United States" through illegal contributions to the campaigns of Bill Clinton and other Democrats, made it back in the United States last year, despite being previously barred from country for his crimes.

Apparently, the "disgraced" Riady was granted a visa waiver so he could receive an honorary doctorate from an Arkansas university and visit with Bill Clinton's foundation (to which he gave $20,000).

The Washington Post asks the key question: "How and why did a foreign billionaire stained by Clinton-era scandals get a U.S. visa after being kept out for so long under the Bush administration?"

Those of you who have been with Judicial Watch for some time may recall that Riady was connected to one of the most serious crimes in our nation's history — a campaign by the Clintons to sell out our nation's security to Chinese government officials (and their front men) in exchange for millions of dollars in campaign contributions for the Clintons and the Democrats. (Otherwise known as the "Chinagate" scandal.)

Johnny Chung, a former Clinton donor (and Judicial Watch client), who was working with a Chinese general to give contributions to the Clintons, put it this way: "The [Clinton] White House is like a subway. You have to put in the coins to open the gates."

Riady (and his family-run company the Lippo Group) put in a lot of coins and got nailed for it. In fact, Riady received the harshest penalty in the history of U.S. campaign finance law, $8.6 million, along with a ban from entering the United States. Apparently, however, with Hillary in the Obama State Department, the gates opened once again for Riady last year, quietly and under the radar.

The Post somewhat flippantly notes that the Chinese government connection to the Clinton fundraising scandal was "never proven." However, a Senate report documented the Chinese communist plan to influence our elections with illegal campaign contributions. The scandal was real. And Riady was right in the middle of it. To quote from the Committee on Government Affairs report:

The Committee has further learned from recently-acquired information that James and Mochtar Riady have had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency. Finally, an unverified single piece of information shared with the Committee indicates that John Huang [a Riady co-conspirator, employee, Clinton administration appointee, and Democratic fundraiser] himself may possibly have had a direct financial relationship with the [People's Republic of China] government.

So a criminal with alleged ties to a foreign intelligence agency is allowed back into our country to try to visit our Secretary of State's husband (who is a former president and beneficiary of Riady's illegal largess)!

Is it any wonder that a State Department that does illicit favors for the Secretary of State's criminal bagman allows terrorists into the country like the one who tried to down the airliner on Christmas day?

This is a scandal for both Hillary and Obama (not to mention Bill Clinton). Other than the important story that editors of the Washington Post buried in its "Style" section, the liberal media is happy to ignore it. (Not the foreign press, where Riady is still seen as the scandalous and corrupt figure he is.) Judicial Watch had been pursuing information about this scandal since July (when Riady obtained his visa), but we've been stonewalled for information by Hillary's State Department. (More of that Obama "transparency" — see below).

In other (and related) Clinton corruption news, the Clinton Foundation released its latest list of donors on New Year's Day, and just as we have seen in previous releases, there are serious conflicts of interest documented. Check out the scoop from The New York Times:

Foreign countries, including Norway and Oman, have contributed to former President Bill Clinton's charity, and donors including Donald Trump, the Coca-Cola Company and the Elton John AIDS Foundation pitched in as Hillary Rodham Clinton served her first year as secretary of state in 2009.

Add the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia to the list as well, which along with Norway gave between $10 million and $25 million, while Oman gave in the $1-5 million range.

(Among the foundation's top personal donors — controversial Canadian mining tycoon Frank Giustra, who gave more than $31 million to the foundation after Bill Clinton helped him seal a lucrative uranium deal with the communist dictator of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic.)

In the new book that documents Harry Reid's patronizing and racist comments towards both blacks and whites, Hillary is quoted as saying (before she took the job) that if she's appointed Secretary of State, "Bill" would turn things into a circus. Specifically, she is alleged to have said, "There's one last thing that's a problem, which is my husband. You've seen what this is like. It will be a circus if I take this job."

Indeed, the circus has come to town.

How can Hillary Clinton go about the business of fairly executing the Obama administration's foreign policy while foreign governments and nationals continue to fill Bill's foundation coffers? And lest anyone have any doubts about the Clintons' willingness to sell public offices for personal and political gain, read the above Riady section again.

The Clinton Foundation's foreign ties plus the Riady scandal might have caused a problem in another presidential administration. But for the Obama administration, it is "business as usual."'