Bill Clinton in Talks to Smooth Wife's Path to Cabinet
By MONICA LANGLEY and JOHN R. EMSHWILLER
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Former President Bill Clinton has offered to submit future charitable and business activities to strict ethics reviews if his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, were nominated as secretary of state, according to Democrats familiar with the deliberations. He has also agreed for the first time to disclose many of the previous donors to his efforts.
Mrs. Clinton is on a short list of names for secretary of state. A small team of aides to President-elect Barack Obama and the Clintons has been negotiating for the past two days in Washington, say people involved in the talks. The goal is to try to overcome concerns that the former president's global business and philanthropic activities could appear to pose conflicts of interest between the Obama administration's foreign policy and the private financial interests of the family of the country's top diplomat.
Under the emerging agreement, Mr. Clinton would disclose the identities of all new donors to his charitable foundation. He would also make public "major" past contributors -- a term that has yet to be defined. The cloak of secrecy over the former president's foreign financial ties stirred widespread criticism when his wife was running for president.
Mr. Clinton would also seek clearance from two separate entities -- the White House counsel and the State Department's ethics chief -- on all donations to his charitable foundation, the William J. Clinton Foundation, which includes his presidential library and the Clinton Global Initiative. He would follow the same procedure before agreeing to any paid speeches, according to people close to the talks. Additionally, Mr. Clinton would step away from his foundation's daily operations -- all significant concessions for his wife, one person added.
(More here.)
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Former President Bill Clinton has offered to submit future charitable and business activities to strict ethics reviews if his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, were nominated as secretary of state, according to Democrats familiar with the deliberations. He has also agreed for the first time to disclose many of the previous donors to his efforts.
Mrs. Clinton is on a short list of names for secretary of state. A small team of aides to President-elect Barack Obama and the Clintons has been negotiating for the past two days in Washington, say people involved in the talks. The goal is to try to overcome concerns that the former president's global business and philanthropic activities could appear to pose conflicts of interest between the Obama administration's foreign policy and the private financial interests of the family of the country's top diplomat.
Under the emerging agreement, Mr. Clinton would disclose the identities of all new donors to his charitable foundation. He would also make public "major" past contributors -- a term that has yet to be defined. The cloak of secrecy over the former president's foreign financial ties stirred widespread criticism when his wife was running for president.
Mr. Clinton would also seek clearance from two separate entities -- the White House counsel and the State Department's ethics chief -- on all donations to his charitable foundation, the William J. Clinton Foundation, which includes his presidential library and the Clinton Global Initiative. He would follow the same procedure before agreeing to any paid speeches, according to people close to the talks. Additionally, Mr. Clinton would step away from his foundation's daily operations -- all significant concessions for his wife, one person added.
(More here.)
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