Dozens of House Republicans, led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, will ask the feds Friday to investigate the Clinton Foundation — including the Clintons’ ties to Laureate Education, a for-profit college chain.
A letter to the FBI, IRS and FTC, signed by more than 65 lawmakers, asks the agencies to review allegations “pursuant to your jurisdictional charge.” They say “unresolved media reports” suggest the foundation is a “lawless ‘pay to play’ enterprise.”
Josh Schwerin, a Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman, called the letter “another baseless political attack from House Republicans who just spent two years and $7 million of taxpayer money on the sham Benghazi Committee and are now just regurgitating the debunked claims from the widely discredited book Clinton Cash."
Former President Bill Clinton was paid $16.5 million to serve as honorary chancellor of Laureate International Universities, and Laureate has donated money to the Clinton Foundation, the letter says. In addition, it says that the International Youth Foundation, an organization focused on training and educating young people for the workforce, is “run by” Laureate founder Douglas Becker, and received over $55 million in USAID grants from 2010 to 2012.
Given that USAID operates under “substantial guidance” from the Secretary of State, the letter states, it creates an appearance that millions in taxpayers dollars was channeled to the International Youth Foundation by Secretary Clinton’s State Department “as a kickback for her husband’s generous contract as an honorary Laureate chancellor.”
William S. Reese, the president and CEO of the International Youth Foundation, said in a letter posted online that the foundation has been a grant recipient under Republican and Democratic administrations since 1999. All federal grants “have been awarded following all applicable federal and agency rules of procurement and related processes,” he said.
Also, Reese said Becker, while serving as chairman of the board, isn’t paid and does not “play an operational executive role.”
The GOP letter also asks the federal authorities to investigate possible tax violations and the foundation’s ties to a Russian company called Uranium One.
Blackburn is a Trump ally and is scheduled to speak at the RNC convention next week in Cleveland. The lawmakers’ letter follows a similar line of attack made last month by Donald Trump against the foundation and its ties to Laureate. The accuracy of the comments were challenged by outlets such as Politifact and the Washington Post’s fact checker.
Blackburn’s decision to write the letter was first reported by the Daily Caller.