When I first heard that the couple had an income of $109 million since leaving the White House, I wasn't shocked. Even though book deals are illicit when entered into by Republicans, the Clintons made a bunch of book royalties. Ditto speaking fees -- the first president Bush was lambasted for giving expensive speeches, but it is clear that the draft-dodging Bill Clinton has shown WWII hero Bush to be a piker in that regard.

But at least, I thought, the couple gave nearly 10% to charity.

Well, sort of.

Hillary ClintonÂ’s presidential campaign released their tax forms from 2000-2007 Thursday, which showed the Clintons earned more than $100 million in that time period and donated $10 million of that to their own charity.

The Clinton campaign reports donating $10,256,741 to the CFF between 2000 and 2006. During that time, CFF dispersed $2,530,100 in money to other charities and causes.

The names of other persons who donated to the CFF are not required to be disclosed.

Over the years, the CFF gave $80,000 to the Clinton Birthplace Foundation Inc., $20,000 to the Shakespeare Theatre, $40,000 to the School of the American Ballet, $5,000 to the YMCA of MarthaÂ’s Vineyard, $10,000 to Amnesty International.

The CFF also donated money to the Immanuel Baptist Church in Shackelford, Arkansas, Georgetown and Yale each year.

CFF lost a significant amount of money in the last two tax reporting years. CFF claimed $4.3 million assets on their 2005 IRS 990 forms. CFF reported much less, $255,890, on their most recent 2006 tax forms. It is not immediately clear from reading the forms where the money went or why assets were lost.

Now for those who are wondering, the CFF is the Clinton Family Foundation -- and the New York Times notes this regarding that "charity".

During that time, the Clintons paid $33.8 million in federal taxes and claimed deductions for $10.2 million in charitable contributions. The contributions went to a family foundation run by the Clintons that has given away only about half of the money they put into it, and most of that was last year, after Mrs. Clinton declared her candidacy.

Only given away half the money? Where did the organization get the where withal to do that if they had depleted their assets so low that in 2006 they had only $250K in assets? And why wait until after Hillary Clinton started campaigning to give it away? I think there is clearly something there that needs to be looked at -- is the Clinton Family Foundation actually a tax-free slush-fund for Hillary's campaign?

And am I alone in being disturbed that the charitable giving -- which, in the end, only amounts to, at most, half of the amount of their claimed contributions -- was to a fund that the Clintons controlled?

UPDATE: A Commenter on the Amanda Carpenter piece makes the following comments. Anyone with an accounting or tax background want to comment upon the issue?

Greg writes: Saturday, April, 05, 2008 9:16 AM

Carpenter (and Tinsldr2) are WRONG

We have a new "urban legend" here! Carpenter's facts are wrong. The 2006 Form 990-PF for the Clinton Family Foundation shows $4.3 million in assets at the end of the year. There is NO payment to Gloria Clinton -- or anyone else. And Tinslder2 is wrong on his facts, too. The CFF, as a private foundation, is only required to distribute 5% of its assets each year. There are lots of things to criticize the Clintons about, but this foundation is entirely legit.

**********

Greg writes: Saturday, April, 05, 2008 9:24 AM

here's the link for the 2006 return:

copy-and-paste the following link into your browser, then click the "2006" link near the bottom of the page, under "990-PF" --

http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990s/990search/ffindershow. cgi?id=CLIN040

I'd rather be factually right here -- though the timing issue is STILL rather interesting, even if my source on the assets issue is wrong.

Posted by: Greg at 01:20 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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