New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, is letting the Clinton Family foundation break the law. According to NY State Law, Schneiderman is supposed to make the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Health Access Initiative (and all charities) publicly disclose the names of foreign governments and the millions they donate each year to the charities but he’s not doing it.
Law Newz reports that New York’s charity law clearly states: “Organizations that received a contribution or grant from a government agency during the reporting period shall include the name of each agency from which contributions were received and the amount of each contribution.”
This type of information about the Clinton Foundation may disclose whether the foreign governments that gave money to the Clinton charities also had special access to Hillary Clinton when she was ran State.
Funny thing is that with Schneiderman as the AG, NY has a reputation of requiring “more transparency from non-profits operating within its borders than many other regulators.” Perhaps the AG is allowing the Clinton Foundation avoid transparency because Schneiderman is also a member of Clinton’s “leadership council” in New York. After all, this AG’s actions suggest that he lives by the motto “politics first.”
A Scripps Washington Bureau review of tax returns and regulatory filings found that year after year the Clinton charities have ignored New York law and related instructions. However, the office of Attorney General Schneiderman, a Democrat whom Hillary Clinton named to her campaign’s “leadership council” in New York, did not respond to Scripps’ questions about the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), which has never publicly disclosed in New York filings the identity of its foreign government contributors or the amounts they give each year. Scripps also discovered CHAI did not report hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign government donations to the state.
However, Schneiderman’s office said it considers the Clinton Foundation, which is a separate charity, “in step” with state rules.
“He’s not doing his job in that case,” said David Nelson, an attorney and former partner at the accounting firm of Ernst & Young who served on the regulations and legislation committee of the Council On Foundations, the philanthropy industry’s equivalent of the American Bar Association.
In 2009, Secretary Clinton’s first year heading the State Department, the Clinton Foundation disclosed to New York only a lump sum of $122 million in foreign government donations, listing the amount on a required form that directs all charities to “list each government contribution (grant) separately.” The foundation continued to provide the lump sum disclosures for foreign governments in every year that followed.
Nelson said, “The Clinton Foundation cannot say they are in compliance with New York regulations.”
Schneiderman’s own office issued detailed instructions for all charities warning them to make sure the total amount of contributions by government disclosed to the state is equal to what the charities report to the IRS. From 2010-2014 Schneiderman allowed the Clintons to ignore his rule, allowing Bubba and Hillary to hide $225 million in foreign government donations.
Just last week, on August 29th Schneiderman won a victory in federal court against the right-leaning Citizens United forcing them disclose key information about its major donors. Following the decision Schneiderman bragged:
“Today’s decision is a victory for common sense oversight of New York’s vast nonprofit sector. New Yorkers deserve to know their donations are protected against fraud and abuse, and today the court protected that right.”
Schneiderman’s also attacks conservatives in other ways. For example, with former VP Al Gore he formed a group called “AGs United for Clean Power.” This Schneiderman-led organization’s mission is to come up with ways to prosecute people, organizations, and companies who are climate skeptics. The politically oriented prosecutor convinced 25 other progressive Attorneys General from 25 states, territories, cities and counties to join his assault on free speech (perhaps, these attorneys skipped their law school constitutional law classes when the topic was the 1st Amendment).
Another example of Schneiderman’s equal justice for all liberals only, is his vendetta against former AIG head Maurice “Hank” Greenberg (yes he got the nickname in the Army because of the Hall-of-Fame MLB star). For over a decade, the New York State AG’s office has stalked Mr. Greenberg. The legal action was started by liberal New York Attorney General and famous client #9 Eliot Spitzer, but was kept alive by the liberal bloodsuckers who succeeded him. The latest of these political vampires is Eric T. Schneiderman (by the way the reports that the “T” stands for “tough shit I am going to make stuff up and screw you anyway” are not true).
Originally there were nine civil charges filed against Mr. Greenberg. Right off the bat seven of the civil charges were laughed out of court. It was revealed that Schneiderman sat on potentially exculpatory evidence in their civil lawsuit (something my lawyer friends tell me is a bad thing). Actually the witness’s statements debunk the remaining two civil charges.
In March 2015 a Wall Street Journal editorial said, “This Spitzer/Schneiderman production is a political case to win headlines and should be dismissed as a first step toward reform of the AG’s office.”
In fact Eric “no justice for conservatives” Schneiderman, has already conceded that money damages are off the table even if he manages to prevail on the remaining two claims – which he can’t.
The real reason Mr. Greenberg is being pursued is that he committed an immoral act for someone who lives in the People’s Republic of New York he dares to spend millions of his dollars supporting conservative candidates. To Schneiderman that’s a terrible offense, one worth him using his supposedly non-political office to pursue his personal political agenda.
It’s progressives like Schneiderman who label people by their income or their politics. That’s why he allows Bubba and Hillary Clinton off the hook and persecutes Greenberg. Those of us who are ruled by morality instead of politics evaluate people by their character and their actions. Hank Greenberg has proven he is a man with a big heart and a concern for people. As my friend Kurt Schlichter wrote:
He lied about his age to enlist as a soldier in World War II and marched through Europe with Patton’s Third Army, where he saw firsthand the bloody carnage of National Socialism [during his WWII service he not only saw horrors as he rushed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day but participated in the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps]. Later, he returned to active duty to fight in Korea. He earned the Bronze Star and was recently awarded the French Legion of Honor for his service on D-Day. Back home, Greenberg turned AIG into a global giant but, mindful of the chaos he witnessed firsthand as a young man, he devoted significant time and effort to philanthropy and to promoting peaceful trade and international relations to help avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.
Based on his actions and character, Eric T. Schneiderman does not believe that justice is blind. Rather it seems he believes justice is his tool to score political points. In NY State progressives running for president don’t need to follow the law. However a war hero who has donated his time as well as money to a full range of medical and cultural charities is a target– not because he committed some violation, but because he donated to the wrong politicians.