Thread: A donor’s gift soon followed Clinton’s help: $100,000 do

A donor’s gift soon followed Clinton’s help: $100,000 donation highlights ethics issues with links to foundations

By Charlie Savage

updated 9:05 p.m. ET, Sat., Jan. 3, 2009
WASHINGTON - An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.

Mrs. Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert J. Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse.

Mrs. Clinton also helped secure a provision in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.

The bill with the tax-free bonds provision became law in October 2004, weeks before the donation, and the highway bill with the set-aside became law in August 2005, about nine months after the donation.

Mr. Congel and Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, both said there was no connection between his donation and her legislative work on his project’s behalf.

Mrs. Clinton supported the expansion of Carousel mall “purely as part of her unwavering commitment to improving upstate New York’s struggling economy, and nothing more,â€

MUST END! THIS IS A BRIBE FOR TAXPAYER DOLLARS AND BOTH PARTIES SHOULD BE IN PRISON...

Politicians need to work and make decisions based upon whats best for the citizens and NO LONGER for who makes the biggest monetary contributions. Get rid of these bogus charities and foundations that are just ways to funnel money to the corrupt scum in office...