Hmm: IRS reviewing the Clinton Foundation?

[Valin]

Hot Air:

Ed Morrissey

Nov. 4 2016

 

The FBI has gotten all of the headlines on its year-plus investigations into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail and the Clinton Foundation, but they’re not the only agency taking a closer look at the Clintons. The Dallas Observer reported yesterday that a local branch of the IRS has spent the last four months looking into the activities of the Clinton Foundation themselves. Investigators there have their lips more tightly pressed than in the FBI and the Department of Justice, but the probe could have some unpleasant complications for the Clintons in the months ahead.

 

Stop laughing. It’s possible. Via Jeff Dunetz:

 

(Snip)

 

The Clinton Foundation ended up on the radar of this IRS unit for two reasons, Joe Pappalardo writes. First, they paid $26 million in salaries in 2014, which would be enough to flag them for a closer look even with this office’s thin budget. Second, when 64 members of the branch of government that controls your budget ask you to look into something, generally speaking, you’re gonna take a peek.

 

So far, they haven’t reported back any findings, and no one expects them to do so before the election. They are, however, pursuing a line of inquiry that parallels the FBI probe, which is whether the foundation acted as a pay-to-play operation that traded official action for donations. That’s a crime of corruption, but as it turns out, it’s also a violation of tax law as well. Pappalardo explains with a reference to the IRS rules:

 

 

 

The emails reveal that Chelsea Clinton ordered an audit of the foundation and “some interviewees reported conflicts of those raising funds or donors, some of whom may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for gifts.”

 

That’s an eye-catcher for the TE/GE folks looking for specific examples of inurement. Instead of money changing hands, the IRS is looking to see if the Clintons traded money for preferential treatment. The IRS rules lay out what qualifies as inurement:

 

(Snip)

[Geee]

I was 'musing' today on how this works. Russ Feingold had a PAC. Collected millions of dollars supposedly to elect Progressive candidates. Only 6% of the proceeds went for that. The rest went to a million dollar salary for him, plus traveling and entertainment expenses. How is that treated taxwise? I don't know. These PACs and election funds are convenient slush funds as far as I can see. I think this is why some candidates that don't have a chance in hell of being elected, keep running year after year - just wonder - What ARE the rules???

[Valin]

@Geee

 

Don't know but I imagine there are Wis. organizations that would be interested.

[Geee]

@Geee

 

Don't know but I imagine there are Wis. organizations that would be interested.

 

I corresponded with some of them months ago. Ron Johnson has starting running an ad this week with some of the info. There is also a FOI request for his time at the State Department the last few years - working on his campaign and getting paid to be an ambassador is illegal. But illegal is SOOOOOOO in now isn't it. It's like - so what, who cares.

[Geee]

Clinton aide says Foundation paid for Chelsea’s wedding, WikiLeaks emails show

Former President Bill Clinton’s top aide wrote in 2012 that Chelsea Clinton used Clinton Foundation resources “for her wedding and life for a decade” and a top Foundation donor was responsible for “killing” unfavorable press coverage – all as an internal Foundation audit uncovered numerous conflicts of interest and “quid pro quo benefits,” according to emails released Sunday by WikiLeaks.

Doug Band, founder of global strategies company Teneo and Bill Clinton’s personal assistant since the 1990s, wrote the Jan. 4, 2012, email to future Hillary Clinton presidential campaign chair John Podesta and two other Clinton aides after receiving word that Chelsea had told “one of the [President] bush 43 kids” and others about “an internal investigation of money within the foundation.” Band wrote such chatter was “not smart.”

 

“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….,” Band wrote. “I hope that you will speak to her and end this[.] Once we go down this road….”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/06/clinton-aide-targets-chelsea-in-email-as-foundation-audit-shows-issues.html