Foundation aide cited Bill Clinton as he complained about ‘500 different conflicts of interest’: WikiLeaks

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US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, attend a campaign event after the third presidential campaign debate in Las Vegas on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:06pm, 21 Oct 2016Updated: 8:39pm, 21 Oct 2016

A top official at the Clinton Foundation said he could name “500 different examples” of conflicts of interest, including some involving former President Bill Clinton, according to more of the emails purportedly hacked from the account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

The official, Doug Band, allegedly wrote on November 17, 2011, that he had been required to sign a conflict-of-interest statement as a board member of the foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative, but that the former president “oddly” didn’t have to sign one “even though he is personally paid by 3 cgi sponsors, gets many expensive gifts from them, some that are at home etc”.

“I could add 500 different examples of things like this,” said Band, who’s no longer affiliated with the foundation. At the time, according to previous releases of emails which are being released by WikiLeaks, Band was fighting openly with Chelsea Clinton as she expanded her role at the foundation and accused Band of misusing his influence. In one email he allegedly called her a “spoiled brat kid.”

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta, whose hacked email account has revealed internal disagreement among aides about the Clinton Foundation. Photo: AP

Representatives of the Clinton Foundation, Bill Clinton and Teneo Holdings LLC, a consulting firm where Band is president, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has declined to confirm the authenticity of the more than 23,000 emails released so far by WikiLeaks in almost daily postings over the last two weeks that appear to come from the private account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. But Clinton and her aides have blamed the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin for cyber espionage aimed at swaying the US election and Republican rival Donald Trump for exploiting the stolen material.

In an email dated November 13, 2011, Band, who long served as Bill Clinton’s personal aide, allegedly wrote that his boss “is far more conflicted every single day” than Band himself, who co-founded Teneo while working at the foundation. Bill Clinton served for a time on the firm’s board.