The
Emerging Clinton Foundation Scandal
What has Hillary Clinton ever run that did not turn into a
debacle?
Is this the beginning … of RICO?
Okay, so that’s not quite as catchy
as Edward G. Robinson’s immortal line. But it
is what a good prosecutor would be asking while pondering the growing cloud
around the Clinton Foundation.
Among Little Ceasar’s
imprints on popular culture is that Robinson’s mobster character, Cesare Enrico
Bandello, inspired Congress to name its seminal anti-organized crime
legislation “RICO” — the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of
1971. The mafia was its most infamous target, but far from its only target.
RICO makes it a crime to run an
organization through what’s called a “pattern of racketeering activity.” The
term racketeering is extensively defined in the statute. It includes acts
involving bribery, fraud, and obstruction of justice, to name just a few.
Prosecutors are fond of RICO because
it enables them to unite disparate illicit or corrupt transactions into one
framework, the enterprise. It need not be a mafia family or traditional
criminal organization; it can be an ostensibly legitimate organization — e.g.,
a foundation, a labor union, a corporation, a guild — that, contrary to the
image it projects publicly, commits sundry legal offenses in conducting its
affairs.
As a matter of fact, if the pattern
of offenses includes fraud and influence peddling, then the enterprise’s
portrayal of itself as a caring, altruistic charitable foundation can be very
helpful to the case. Juries do not like hypocrisy and shady dealing. They get
turned off by “charitable organizations” that turn out, in the main, to be
vehicles for their principals to live lavishly or covers for selling political
influence. And juries know charitable organizations tend not to wipe their
servers clean even after congressional investigators have instructed them to
preserve evidence.
Plus, it is important to bear in
mind that, at the moment, the political dimension of the Clinton Foundation
scandal transcends the possibility of criminal or civil legal liability. Right
now, the Clinton Foundation provides a stark reminder of the last enterprise
these characters ran: the Clinton White House. Remember that one? Campaign
finance irregularities, selling influence (remember the Lincoln bedroom?),
awarding pardons to fraudsters and terrorists for the purpose of rewarding
donors and courting political constituencies, blatant obstruction of justice,
and perjury.
You see the Hillary! 2016 campaign
launch, you consider what we’re learning about the Clinton Foundation, and you
naturally ask yourself: Do we really want to go through this again?
You consider the Clinton Foundation,
you think about the State Department — Benghazi, the courting of the Muslim
Brotherhood, the secret, unlawful email system, the foreign money pouring into
Clinton coffers while Mrs. Clinton was making key decisions about American
foreign policy — and you naturally ask yourself:
What has Hillary Clinton ever run
that did not turn into a debacle?
Finally, we should also consider the
Obama administration’s legal standards. As I’ve recently discussed
here at Ordered Liberty, the Justice Department has just filed its indictment
of Senator Robert Menendez (D – NJ) on various corruption charges. The
prosecution’s theory is that Menendez accepted “things of value” in exchange
for using his political influence to benefit a big-time donor. Sen. Menendez
counters that he did nothing wrong — i.e., that there is no nexus between, on
the one hand, the hefty contributions, private jet rides to ritzy resorts, and
other posh gifts he received, and, on the other hand, the use of his office in
ways that just happened to favor the donor.
We are still at a very early stage
of scrutinizing the Clinton Foundation, but we can already say two things with
confidence:
(1) The millions upon millions of
dollars the Clinton Foundation has collected from foreign donors and others
with significant self-interest in U.S. government policy — during a time when
Mrs. Clinton had a key role (and the prospect of an even bigger role) in
designing U.S. government policy — makes the gifts to Menendez look like chump
change.
(2) To the best of our knowledge,
Menendez never withheld his emails from the government or wiped his server
clean.
Read more: http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2015/04/23/the-emerging-clinton-foundation-scandal/#ixzz3YD4D5N5I
Andrew
C. McCarthy,
a former federal prosecutor, a New
York Times bestselling author, and a Senior Fellow at the National
Review Institute, joined PJ Media as a full-time PJ Columnist in May 2012.
Andy,
who put the Blind Sheik behind bars in the first World Trade Center bombing,
was arguably the most important prosecutor in the War on Terror. He is among
the most authoritative writers anywhere on the dangers of Jihad. His
distinguished legal career and expertise on national security matters will be
invaluable to PJ Media and our readers.
Given
his background, it’s no surprise that Andy is very interested in law and
national security. Andy’s training is as a trial lawyer, not a journalist,
which allows him to break down complicated events and legal principles into a
narrative that commonsense people can wrap their brains around.
He
also is very interested in ideology:
When
it comes to Islamic supremacism, I’m interested in how craven we’ve become
(particularly at the governmental level) about recognizing it, discussing it
and understanding it. I’m very interested in conservatism and how far we’ve
abandoned it — especially how addicted to statism the country’s putatively
conservative political party and commentariat has become. I’m very committed to
the founding principle that we are a self-determining people: we are not meant
to be run by (i.e., to turn our lives over to) experts and technocrats.
As
a PJ Columnist, Andy would like to help conservatives get better at recognizing
the battle is on before it’s already lost:
My
pet peeve about us conservatives is that — for sound conservative reasons — we
are a step or two slow when conventional wisdom (reliably wrong) is born.
Consequently, the Right loses the language battles (abortion becomes “choice”;
taxes become “revenue”; spending becomes “investment”; Hezbollah becomes a
“political party”; a jihadist who’s run out of ammo becomes a “moderate
Islamist”; and so on). These are not just word games; they become the
conceptual framework for analyzing news and policy.
Outside
of his legal and writing careers, Andy has been coaching little league baseball
for the last few years. He’s been a hockey fan for more than 40 years, and he
and his family watch sports all year round: mainly Mets, Jets, Knicks and
Devils. He also has been a PJ Media fan since the website launched: “It’s not
only got energy, variety and moxie; some of my favorite writers, and good
friends, are PJ Columnists. To join such a line-up is humbling and
exhilarating.”
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