Clinton Foundation Says It Accepted $1 Million Donation From Qatar While Hillary Was Secretary of State

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The thousands of hacked Clinton campaign emails included at least one about a $1 million donation that Qatar wanted to give the Clinton Foundation in 2012 in honor of Bill’s 65th birthday the previous year. Officials wanted to meet with the former president in New York to give him the check, though, it’s not clear if that get-together ever happened.

But according to a new Reuters report, the Clinton Foundation confirms that it did accept the $1 million gift from Qatar in 2012, a time when Hillary Clinton was serving as U.S. secretary of State. During her tenure, the Clinton Foundation had an agreement with the State Department to disclose any increased or new gifts from foreign-government donors while Clinton acted as top diplomat.

The State Department has said previously that it has no record of any report about a 2012 contribution from Qatar. A spokesperson for the Clinton Foundation told Reuters that it took the $1 million Qatari gift; however, that particular gift wasn’t a “material increase” from previous years.

The information, gleaned from the WikiLeaks disclosures, doesn’t help the perception of potential ethics issues between the Clinton State Department and the family’s foundation — though nothing has shown that donors received any political or policy favors because of contributions when Clinton was secretary of State. The FBI reportedly began a preliminary investigation into the charity on any possible conflicts of interest, but the Justice Department held at the time that there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue a case.

Clinton Foundation Accepted $1 Million Donation From Qatar