Corrupt but unaccomplished

The Clinton Foundation “received as much as $26.4 million in previously undisclosed payments” from corporations, foreign sources and other groups in 2014, The Washington Post reported 10 days ago.

That’s in addition to “millions” in foreign donations for the years 2010 to 2013 that were not reported until Reuters asked about them in April. Which were in addition to millions in foreign donations the Clinton Foundation acknowledged after The Washington Post asked about them in February.

Foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation — and Bill Clinton’s speaking fees — jumped while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, wrote Peter Schweizer in his book “Clinton Cash.”

After big donations, the State Department approved arms sales to authoritarian regimes, and Ms. Clinton flip-flopped on human rights in Colombia and nuclear proliferation.

While she was in Foggy Bottom, six of eight winners and 22 of 37 nominees for the Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence were donors, according to the Washington Examiner.

CharityWatch says even a “minimally efficient” foundation spends 60 percent of its budget on programs. In the years 2009-2012, the Clinton Foundation devoted just 15 percent to charitable grants, according to an analysis of IRS filings by The Federalist. That fell to 10 percent in 2013. Forty-five percent was spent on salaries, perks and travel for staff.

Some senior staffers have more experience in politics than in charity work. Sidney Blumenthal was on the Clinton Foundation payroll while he was running a private intelligence service for Ms. Clinton.

The “intelligence” he gave her was mostly the opinions of Libyans with whom Mr. Blumenthal was drumming up business. He didn’t disclose his dealings in extensive correspondence with the secretary of state, an apparent violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Mr. Blumenthal had no security clearance but exchanged sensitive material, some of which has since been classified. Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell is certain Ms. Clinton’s private server was hacked by foreign intelligence services.

“If I had discussed classified missions, on a compromised server, with someone who did not hold a security clearance, the consequences would be harsh and career ending,” wrote soldier Chad Longell for IJReview.

Among 296 emails released in a State Department data dump before the Memorial Day weekend was one in which Ms. Clinton referred to U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, murdered in Libya, as “Chris Smith.” The secretary of state can be excused for not knowing the names of her ambassadors to Botswana or Paraguay. But Libya was the focal point of administration policy at the time. She should have been talking to Mr. Stevens often enough to remember his name.

The emails Ms. Clinton turned over to State reflect so poorly on her that one wonders what was in the emails she deleted.

Islamist extremists now dominate Libya. Her ballyhooed “reset” of relations with Russia was a catastrophic failure. Supporters couldn’t name a single significant policy success during her tenure at Foggy Bottom.

Ms. Clinton also was an ineffective senator. Her stab at policymaking as first lady — a Rube Goldberg-ish task force on health care reform — was a fiasco.

Ms. Clinton supports the Export-Import Bank, exhibit A for corporate welfare. Clinton Foundation donors are prominent among companies that have received loans.

Ms. Clinton of late has taken no position on President Barack Obama’s Asia trade bill, presumably to avoid offending either “progressives” whose votes she seeks or crony capitalists who pay her exorbitant speaking fees.

In more than two decades in national politics, Hillary Clinton has succeeded only at peddling influence and orchestrating smear campaigns against women her husband molested. Ms. Clinton is greedy and corrupt. She has a reckless disregard for the truth and national security. She has a record barren of achievement.

Ms. Clinton is popular with her party despite all this. What that says about Democrats isn’t flattering.

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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.