COMMENT: The original headline, ‘Clinton donor list doesn’t say who gave in ‘09′ reflects an earlier lack of reporting; the Foundation has now updated with greater disclosure. As the AP reports, “The foundation released a donor list Friday morning that didn’t identify who gave in 2009, but then updated it to provide that information.” Therefore, Business Week’s headline is no longer up-to-date while the report is still worthwhile.
SHARON THEIMER and LARRY MARGASAK
Business Week
January 1, 2010
SEE ALSO: Foreign governments among Clinton donors
Former President Bill Clinton’s charity released a donor list Friday under an agreement with President Barack Obama to prevent conflicts with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s role as secretary of state, but it failed to identify who gave in 2009, her first year in the Cabinet post.
The donor list disclosed by the William J. Clinton Foundation did show that conservative Richard Scaife, who bankrolled anti-Clinton investigations in the 1990s, pitched in money. Also, Saudi Arabia and Norway each donated in the range of $10 million to $25 million to the former president’s charity. Several other foreign governments, including Kuwait, also participated. The biggest donors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave more than $25 million.The contributors also included troubled insurance giant American International Group, banking industry fixture Citigroup, Inc. and entertain Barbra Streisand’s foundation.
Clinton foundation spokesman Matt McKenna said that the Saudi government didn’t send money to the foundation in 2009. He said the list doesn’t single out those who contributed since Mrs. Clinton became secretary of state early last year, but rather identifies donors who have given over a period of years. Many of the names among the thousands on the list also appeared on the first list the Clintons released in December 2008, and there was no way to discern whether these donors also gave last year.
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